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i.'.'.gjf.yiXX.i 3 i '-'v/'-Jl 

i'l in [tin if.* ■ ii? 







































LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

T? *> .5 4 t ' ~ ■ • ' 

(Ujap ' ' Cupp;/ • : ,c 

■Slielf.vK S 3 * 




UNITED sTATES OF AMERICA. 



















































< 




































V 
































Baggage Car 
Traffic. 


Illustrating the Customs and Necessary Rules and 
Regulations of the Baggage Department and 
the Parcel Traffic of Railroads in this 
Country and in Europe. 




/ 

BY 

MARSHALL M. KIRKMAN. 


Uijo 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE RAILROAD GAZETTE. NO. 73 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 

1878. 

f ' 





« 



T f ip -s U 


Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1878, by 
The Railroad Gazette, 

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Printed by 

Donnelley, Loyd & Co. 


CHICAGO. 




PREFACE. 


\ 


To those disinclined to waste time upon anything 
not of an entirely practical or matter-of-fact nature, 
it is well, perhaps, to state that the first three or four 
chapters of this book have no immediate reference 
to the serious affairs of the Baggage Department, 
except that everything that helps to illustrate the 
spirit that animates our railroads tend to a better 
understanding of their business; the chapters in 
question were written several years ago, but are 
published now for the first time. 

Having had occasion some time back to examine 
into the affairs of the Baggage Department, and the 
Traffic incident to it, the fact that there was no definite 
or known plan for conducting much of its business at 
once became apparent. As I progressed in my 
researches the importance of the subject became 
more and more manifest. My investigations finally 
led me to inquire into the customs and workings of 
the Luggage Department upon the European rail¬ 
ways, and to compare them with our own. The extent 
of the undertaking suggested its embodiment in a 
book. Hence the present volume. To those who 
have kindly afforded me information and assist¬ 
ance in connection with my investigations, I take 
this occasion to return my thanks. 

Chicago, June 6, 1878. 





TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Preface 


Page. 

iii 


CHAPTER I. 

The highways of ancient and modern times—The dura¬ 
bility of the latter—How they are constructed — The 
period of evolution. . . . . . . I 

CHAPTER II. 

The hospitality of a railroad company — The special train 
—The excursion — The officials on board — The busi¬ 
ness car — The baggage car and its associations. . n 

CHAPTER III. 

The trainboy — What he is and what he does. . . 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

The train baggageman — Something about his duties — 

His reputation abroad—His peculiarities. . . 33 

. CHAPTER V. 

What constitutes baggage ? — What constitutes baggage 
in other countries — Why should baggage be trans¬ 
ported without extra charge? — Baggage unaccom¬ 
panied by owner—The quantity of baggage that 
may be transported free — The customs in other 
countries — The cost of transporting baggage. . 39 



VI 


Table of Contents . 


CHAPTER VI. 

Page. 

Responsibility of our railroads for baggage lost or dam¬ 
aged — Responsibility of railway companies in other 
countries — Limit of responsibility for baggage lost 
or damaged in the United States — System required 
to enable a company to fix the responsibility for lost 
or damaged baggage — Safeguards must be provided 
to secure efficiency and prevent fraud — Some of the 
deceptions practiced. . . .... 57 

CHAPTER VII. 

The manipulation of baggage — The primitive mode of 
handling baggage — The Local baggage check — Sup¬ 
plying agents with local checks—The Reversible or 
Inter-road check — The system of handling baggage 
perfect — The practice of checking baggage compul¬ 
sory in the United States— How baggage is billed in 
other countries — Baggage billed through in Europe. 70 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Insurance and storage of baggage by railway companies 
— Storage charged by railways abroad — The men 
who destroy values and precipitate railroad wars — 

The agencies of a company made Depositaries for 
Parcels — The revenue that may be derived therefrom 
— The system required.83 

CHAPTER IX. 

The inter-road passenger and his baggage — Something 
about commissions — The class of men who have 
fastened the practice of paying commissions upon the 
railway companies — The abolition of the practice — 
Effect of competition on baggage car traffic — Com¬ 
missions bring no increased business. 


92 


Table of Contents. vii 

CHAPTER X. 

Page. 

Excess baggage customs here and abroad — Neglect of the 
subject by responsible and directing officials— Obsta¬ 
cles in the way — Inequalities that exist — The law 
of supply and demand — Railway property entitled 
to a fair dividend — Extra baggage rates —The Gen¬ 
eral Baggage Agent — The difficulty of enforcing 
charges for extra baggage — Intimidation of officials 
— The popular officer — Reluctance to pay for excess 
baggage — The harassed and perplexed agent — The 
irate patron — Insufficiency of the time allowed for 
accounting one cause of the demoralization. . . 106 

CHAPTER XI. 

Through emigrant business — The excess luggage of or¬ 
dinary inter-road passengers — Not difficult to provide 
a proper system of accounting — Excess local baggag e 
— Collections should be made by the receiving agent 
— Extra baggage passes—Disposition of way-bills, 
passes, etc. — A check upon the issue of season passes, 
permits, etc. — When sufficient time is not allowed 
for weighing — Imperative need of reform. . . 127 

CHAPTER XII. 

Commercial travelers— How the coupon mileage ticket 
is used—Form of baggage permit — How the use¬ 
fulness of the mileage ticket may be increased — Its 
use upon suburban trains. ..... 143 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Accounting for baggage car traffic—The course to be 
pursued — The form of way-bill to be used — When 
there is lack of time at forwarding station — Baggage 
traffic to and from foreign roads — Accounting for 
traffic passed without cash payments — Something 
about the form of baggage traffic way-bills — The 
form used abroad. . . . . • • • I 5 2 


Yin 


Table of Contents. 

t 

CHAPTER XIV. 


Page. 

Accounting for the proceeds of baggage car traffic — 
Monthly abstract of baggage car traffic forwarded — 
Monthly abstract of baggage car traffic received — 
Storage of baggage, lost checks, etc. — List of un¬ 
collected charges on baggage car traffic—Receipts 
must be given for all moneys collected — Pocket 
memorandum book of baggage car traffic forwarded 
— Notice of errors. . . .... 175 

CHAPTER XV. 

Instructions to agents, station baggagemasters, train 
baggagemen and others in reference to their duties 
in connection with the regular business of the baggage 
department—General instructions to agents and 
train baggagemen — Statements and returns required 
of agents — Statement of baggage delivered by train 
baggagemen to agents — Directions for checking 
baggage, the care of checks, etc.— Lost and estray 
baggage — Lost checks—Unclaimed baggage — 
Baggage car traffic—Miscellaneous instructions to 
agents — Statements and returns required of train 
baggagemen — The receipt and delivery of baggage 
by train baggagemen — Receiving and delivering 
baggage by train baggagemen at stations at which 
there is no agent — Special directions to train bag¬ 
gagemen in reference to baggage car traffic — Miscel¬ 
laneous rules; attention to duty, care of car, etc., 
upon the part of baggagemen. ..... 187 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The express or parcel traffic — What constitutes freight 
traffic? — Necessity for the parcel department — Its 
traffic described — Parcel rates — Some of the reasons 
why the conduct of the business by companies organ- 


Table of Contents . 


IX 


Page. 

ized for the purpose is desirable — Some comparisons 

— Express vs. Railroad — Making collections — 
Officials must receipt for property—The working 
organization — Good faith between man and man 
an important element — Adequate time allowed for 
accounting — Agencies are of three classes—The 
duties of messengers— Parcel traffic way-bills—“Ex¬ 
pensing ” (adjusting differences) — Season contracts 

— Station records and returns of express traffic — De¬ 
scription of the system in detail. .... 214 



BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE HIGHWAYS OF ANCIENT AND MODERN 
TIMES — THE DURABILITY OF THE LATTER 
— HOW THEY ARE CONSTRUCTED — THE 
PERIOD OF EVOLUTION. 

Amidst all tlie ruin that has engulphed ancient 
Rome, the public highways constructed by her 
when in the plenitude of her power remain 
practically unimpaired, and are to-day enduring 
monuments of the stability of her improvements 
and the public spirit of her citizens. The mag¬ 
nificent tombs, rich in marble and statuary, 
wherein she laid her dead two thousand years 
ago, have fallen to pieces, or have been rifled by 
successive generations of vandals. The palaces 
wherein her people lived, and the temples 
wherein they worshiped, have disappeared 
long centuries ago. Her public buildings and 
her playhouses have crumbled into ruins; the 
monuments erected by her in commemoration 
of her triumphs, and intended to carry down 
to the latest generations of mankind the story 
of her greatness, have been stolen, or lie stained 
and discolored beneath the accumulated debris 





9 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


of centuries of ignorance and squalor. Man¬ 
kind may yet trace tlie magnificent proportions 
of her coliseum, while they recall the story of 
her wealth and the barbaric splendor of her 
fetes, but the broken walls, and leaning pillars, 
assure us that it too is slowly receding into 
oblivion. 

Of all tlie great works of Rome her highways 
alone remain. Over these highways her armies 
marched ; along their hardened surfaces moved 
the vast caravans that supplied her population 
with food. 

All nations had, like Rome, great public 
highways. These highways, while the}^ were 
inferior in construction to those of Rome, 
connected, nevertheless, as did hers, all the 
great cities and places of importance, commer¬ 
cial and military. 

These great military roads and commercial 
highways are no longer things of current use 
or construction. Those that existed and were 
once the focus of bustling life and commercial 
activity have shrunken into cow-paths, or 
grass-grown avenues — play grounds for chil¬ 
dren : they no longer possess more than a 
neighborhood importance; their uses have 
become purely local. In their place the Railway 
has sprung into existence; the creature of a 
day, it permeates every nook and crevice of 
industry and profit, wrapping the globe in its 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


3 


iron embrace, and causing the earth to tremble 
with the weight and speed of its moving 
trains. 

Two thousand years from now when the 
Railway has in its turn given place to some¬ 
thing simpler or better, or when in the evolu¬ 
tions of time, civilization has again lapsed 
into barbarism, the habitant of that distant 
day will still traverse with wonder and awe 
the countless roadways and viaducts con¬ 
structed by the men of the nineteenth century. 
He will trace these arteries of civilization, 
over the deep morass, across the trackless 
desert, and through the impenetrable jungle ; 
he will follow them through the deep canons 
of rugged and inaccessible mountains and 
through pathways cut in solid rock; he will 
penetrate into the heart of mountains upon 
whose base perennial flowers bloom and upon 
whose summits the snows of winter are ever 
present; he will pursue the smoothly graded 
tracks as they wind in and about the mountain 
sides, slowly ascending until the topmost peak 
is reached and passed; he will follow them 
where broken stones and powdered brick will 
tell him of the existence of tunnels long since 
abandoned; broken arches and slowly crumbling 
piers will mark the places where in ages past 
broad rivers and precipitous gorges have been 
crossed in safety by countless multitudes of 
people. 







4 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


The railroads that lie like countless seams 
upon the face of two great continents, with 
each year’s use take deeper root in the soil, 
becoming with the weight of each succeeding 
train more compactly and indissolubly blended. 
Who can foretell their destiny? who can 
estimate their effect upon mankind? Now 
radiating from every important center, like 
scintillations of light, they promise with cheap¬ 
ened appliances and increased knowledge to 
become universal in their presence and use. 

How shall we compare the few great high¬ 
ways possessed by Rome with the thousands of 
miles of railroads already built and that will be 
built? The roads built by Rome were inde¬ 
structible : these promise to become equally 
endurable. Rome dug deep into the earth and 
built upwards with successive layers of stone 
and mortar, interspersed with fragments of 
pottery and broken brick cemented together: 
our process is more simple and for the time 
more economical. We commence above the 
surface of the ground, forcing the material 
required, by slow and imperceptible processes, 
deep into the bosom of the earth ; piling the 
enduring rock and coarser gravels, layer upon 
layer above the raised earth, we secure in time 
a roadbed hard as adamant. 

It is interesting to examine the process more 
in detail. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


5 


In constructing the common form of road¬ 
bed for a Railway an embankment is first 
thrown up. The inequality of the surface ’ 
sometimes requires that it should be higher, 
sometimes lower; upon a perfectly flat country 
the embankment is at first only a few inches in 
height. This embankment answers several 
important purposes: it partially drains the 
track; it admits of a perfectly level surface, 
and it serves to hold each tie in its jDlace, pro¬ 
tecting it at the same time from dampness. 
Upon this embankment the cross ties or sleepers 
are placed ; upon them in turn the iron is laid. 
To secure the requisite firmness the ties are 
partially imbedded in the soil. Now this soil, 
kneaded in nature’s laboratory, and so rich in 
its productive capacity, is too compact to make 
a good roadbed; not being sufficiently porous, 
the moisture is retained too long ; the tie lies 
in this soft loam as in a basin. The impinge¬ 
ment of the trains causes the surface of this 
basin to harden; the water from the rains 
and the melting snow and ice lie in it as in 
a cup; the wooden tie absorbs the moisture, • 
and absorbing it, rots; besides this, and more 
important than aught else, the track becomes 
heavy, its cohesiveness is destroyed; it no 
longer possesses sufficient power of resistance 
to withstand the weight of the trains, and 
is eventually swallowed up in the soft loam 





6 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


as in a bed of quicksand. These defects are 
fatal except upon roads that are little used. 
To obviate them broken stone, coarse gravel, 
cinders and even sand are employed to ballast 
the track. This ballast is spread in copious 
layers over the whole surface of the road¬ 
bed ; it is made to slope outwards from the 
center, where it sometimes reaches two or three 
inches above the top of the tie. The ballast is 
forced underneath and round about the ties, 
and for this purpose thin wedge-shaped tamp¬ 
ing bars made of iron and steel are used; the 
water filters through this ballast, leaving the 
track dry, compact — elastic. But while it is 
important that the rain and melting snow and 
ice should without delay be drained off from 
the surface of the track it is also quite as 
important that the bed upon which the gravel 
rests should likewise be freed from water. To 
permit this the earth embankment upon which 
the ballast is placed should be sufficiently high 
so that the water that oozes through the super¬ 
structure or ballast may in turn quickly flow 
(seep) out at the side of the raised earth. 

While the ballast we have described possesses 
perhaps little or no greater elasticity than com¬ 
mon black soil or loam, it is not so compact. 

Ballast made of broken stone is preferred; 
next in order comes coarse gravel and cinders. 
The finer qualities of gravel and sand do not 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


7 


possess sufficient body; it is important that 
the track should be held firmly in position, 
besides in dry weather the moving trains cause 
an impalpable powder, as insidious as the mists, 
to rise from a track constructed of fine gravel 
or sand; this powder, this gritty substance 
called dust, permeates every thing; it envelopes 
the locomotive; it fills the cars; it permeates 
all parts of the machinery; it finds its way into 
the journal bearings, cutting and destroying 
them like the action of millions of revolving 
diamonds. 

In the Fall and Spring the action of the frost 

upon the track is peculiar; as it freezes, the 

roadbed and its adjuncts are forced upwards, 

not uniformly but in some places more than in 

others ; as the frost disappears from the ground 

the bed recedes; but as the bed recedes the 

ties become loosened from the ballast and 

remain nearer the surface. In resuming its 

normal position the track retains to a certain 

extent the irregularities of surface we have 

noticed. To remedv these defects it becomes 

%/ 

necessary from time to time to add new ballast, 
tamping it in carefully around the ties and 
leveling the surface as in the first instance. It 
is possible that in time a roadbed, thus con¬ 
structed, will become to all intents and purposes 
impervious to water, or so raised above the 
surrounding earth as to be quickly and effec- 




8 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


tually freed of any water it may absorb. It will 
thus entirely escape the action of the frost. 
This road, having its base deep in the soil and 
cemented together by years of wear, will 
become hardened; it will possess an elastic 
base ; but it will be freed from moisture. Such 
a track is as indestructible as the earth in 
which it is imbedded and of which it is a part. 
And thus it is that as long as the world revolves, 
and the action of heat and cold are the same as 
to-day, these roadways that are being slowly 
and laboriously built up round about us will 
remain imperishable monuments of the men of 
the nineteenth century. 

To-day every thing connected with a Railroad, 
including its track, is in process of evolution. 
Its organization and maintenance are in a state 
of transition; the discoveries of to-day are dis¬ 
carded as worthless to-morrow ; the principles 
governing its business and essential to its life 
are but illy understood or carelessly regarded. 
The simplest laws of political economy when 
applied by it are looked upon as encroachments 
by the people ; the police regulations necessary 
to its protection are viewed with suspicion. 
Classes have repeatedly sought to confiscate it 
under guise of regulating its franchises, and 
adroit politicians have sought to bind it with 
laws cunningly framed. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


9 


The creation of yesterday, our railroads pos¬ 
sess neither history nor prestige. A necessity 
to the community, they have been made the 
plaything of aspiring politicians. No tradi¬ 
tions endear them to the people. Giants in 
strength, they are held in check by the efforts 
of Liliputian officers acting for the state. The 
spirit animating them is but little understood; 
every thing about them is new. They employ 
hundreds of thousands of men, and millions of 
dollars are annually disbursed in constructing 
and operating them ; it is apparent they possess 
great power. How will this power be exer¬ 
cised ? The people, already misled, are apt to 
conjecture the worst. 

The extent of a railway company’s power 
and its use is unknown; like every thing that 
is unknown, it is feared. It was necessary to the 
accomplishment of certain sinister purposes 
that this fear, at first faint and indefinite, 
should in certain sections of the United States 
be assiduously cultivated and extended. In 
time it was succeeded by hate. Political adven¬ 
turers made use of this hatred to prey upon 
the railway companies, while appearing to serve 
the community. That their depredations have 
been restricted to a few localities, we owe to 
the general good sense of the people and the 
conservatism of their rulers. 



10 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


It is safe to determine that the beneficent 
purposes which our railroads are accomplishing 
will in time rescue them from political para¬ 
sites who seek to use them for purposes of self 
aggrandizement. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


11 


CHAPTER II. 

THE HOSPITALITY OF A RAILROAD COMPANY. 

If, as we have shown in the preceding 
chapter, a railway company is sometimes the 
innocent cause of much unnecessary uneasiness, 
it is also, once in a while, the occasion of much 
genuine pleasure to those so lucky as to be the 
recipients of its hospitality. 

What attention is there that is more insidi¬ 
ous than that of a great corporation ? 

It adds much to the value of a railway com¬ 
pany’s hospitality, that it is an event of rare 
occurrence. And besides, enjoyments that are 
participated in only by the few, are, queerly 
enough, held in especial favor. Favors of this 
kind contribute a delight that nothing that is 
base or popular can. 

No one that has enjoyed the hospitality of a 
railway company can forget its pleasures. 

THE SPECIAL TRAIN — THE EXCURSION. 

Who can resist the circumstance and pomp 
of a special train, with its luxurious cars and 
its attentive waiters ? The delights of such a 
train, with its attendant excitement, its anima- 


12 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


tion and social enjoyments, are things that do 
not readily pass from the memory. Long after¬ 
wards we recall with delight its pleasures and 
its peculiarities. We remember that many 
things impressed us as strange, that we had 
never noticed before. We remember the wait¬ 
ing crowds at each succeeding depot, as the 
train plunged past the station platform with a 
rush and a roar, that made the dead leaves and 
the bits of paper dance and ship like boys 
playing at leap-frog. We remember the staid 
old switchmen, standing at their posts as the 
special flew by. We remember the bustle 
among the trainmen, waiting on the various 
sidings; the engineer leaning out of his cab; 
the fireman standing by; the conductor signal¬ 
ing to go ahead. As we disappear in the 
distance, we see the trains pulling out from the 
stations and side-tracks; the business we had 
delayed for a moment is everywhere resuming 
its accustomed course. We remember the sun¬ 
burnt faces and old-fashioned costumes of the 
trackmen, as they stand aside in clusters, here 
and there, along the line. 

THE OFFICIALS ON BOARD. 

We have not forgotten the officials on board. 
We remember the look of settled gloom with 
which they regard the track from the rear car; 
how intensely they gaze backward at the 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


13 


bridges and little culverts, as if they expected 
to see them detach themselves from their fast¬ 
enings, and set out in hot pursuit after the 
flying train. We watch them again as they 
point with languid interest at the growing 
crops. We hear them talking in monosyllables 
about the coming rush of business. This antic¬ 
ipated avalanche, we remember, causes them 
to shrug their shoulders and laugh lightly, as if 
it was extremely probable that they should be 
crushed under its weight, but no matter. We 
remember the look of settled melancholy upon 
their faces as they pass through the cars, a 
look of responsibility that hinted at impending 
dangers, a look such as an old captain might 
wear upon a dark and troubled night, upon 
an unknown coast. We remember the many 
secret conferences held by them in unfre¬ 
quented parts of the car; the reams of paper 
that were consumed in communications hastily 
written and hurriedly consulted over and — 
eventually destroyed ; the mysterious bits of 
paper which a junior official wildly flung from 
the train from time to time as stations were 
reached and passed. We remember how ab¬ 
ruptly each official addressed those that were 
subordinate to him; and how deferentially he 
in turn approached those that were superior to 
him. We remember the careworn expression, 
the look of anxiety — almost of imbecility — 










14 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


upon the faces of the younger officers, as if 
they would like to get away from their supe¬ 
riors for a while and have a quiet time of it in 
the baggage or smoking car. And the con¬ 
ductor! he whom we had all our lives been 
accustomed to see coming and going with 
stately freedom and regularity, where was he? 
We found him, towards night, in a shrunken and 
disheveled condition, on the engine, talking in 
a feeble and disjointed way with the driver. 
More fortunate than the youngsters on board, 
he had fled to the engine. Whenever we 
stopped to take on a fresh supply of fuel or 
water, I remember that one high official, with 
enormous hands and crooked legs of great 
strength and thickness, would rush wildly into 
the depot, look hastily around with clouded 
brow and eagle eye, and then hurriedly return 
to the train platform, from whence he would 
converse in sharp, disjointed sentences with the 
obsequious agent. Other officials would care¬ 
fully scan the water-house, walking around it 
and prying into it as if they thought seriously 
of taking it down then and there and moving 
it a few feet further on. 

But we can not tell half nor quarter of the 
many delightful things we saw, but w r e love to 
remember them and grow garrulous over them 
upon occasion. All of us have been upon, at 
least, one great excursion, or, if we have not, 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


15 


some dear friend, more fortunate than we, will 
describe, with slight urging, every thing that 
occurred upon that eventful occasion, not for¬ 
getting what the Great Man said in his presence, 
and what He said in reply. 

THE BUSINESS CAR. 

A prominent railway official or manager has, 
in his day, what the multitude would call many 
excursions. When upon business of his com¬ 
pany, he has his engine and his special car, and 
travels Avith the speed and directness of the 
wind. When worn out with the monotony and 
drudgery of office work, he throws himself into 
his car and in an instant is whirled away into 
the pure air and sleepy quiet of the country. 
His business car is his fortress; it is as snug 
and cozy as a lady’s boudoir; it has a comfort¬ 
able saloon, a soft carpet, and plenty of easy 
chairs scattered here and there; these chairs 
suggest comfort and a good cigar after dinner. 
A cozy table in the center hints at whist or 
pedro after supper, when business is over, and 
the car is whirling along through the country, 
or laid up for the night in some quiet inland 
tOAvn. The manager does not travel alone, he 
is usually accompanied by certain officers of 
his staff. These officers inquire carefully into 
the needs of their several departments, as 
they move over the line ; in this Avay they are 






16 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


kept more fully advised of the wants of the 
company than they could be in any other way. 
After these excursions into the country, the 
officers return to their desks, refreshed and 
invigorated as from a vacation ; many important 
matters, requiring the personal direction of the 
responsible officers, have been attended to; 
business has everywhere been accelerated; the 
officials have become better acquainted with 
the property; their ability to work has been 
increased by what they have observed; and, 
finally, their strength has been increased and 
prolonged by the rest they have had. 

THE BAGGAGE CAR AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 

The baggage car is not attractively furnished. 
It contains, perhaps, two or three comfortable 
chairs, that is all. It is plain, even homely. 
Its corrugated roof is mellow with time and 
tobacco smoke. The upright bars and heavy 
braces along its sides indicate strength, but do 
not add to its attractiveness. Red and white 
signals are hung here and there ready for use. 
The floor of the car is kept free from dust; but 
it is not always clean. The traditional female 
with scrub-brush and bucket is seldom seen 
here. But no matter, association here, as else¬ 
where, has endeared all these things to us, even 
the rough brown floor. We find ourselves tak¬ 
ing a friendly interest in the water-cans stand- 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


IT 


ing in the corner. We are fully inclined to 
trust in the efficacy of the horse-shoes nailed 
over the door, and hanging loosely upon pegs 
here and there; evidently no ill-fortune can 
betide a car so guarded. We have counted the 
pigeon-holes, nailed up by the door, many times. 
We know, for instance, just how many checks 
there are in that bunch hanging in the corner. 
We know that that old rusty stove, so cheerful 
in Winter, and so morose and silent in Sum¬ 
mer, has never been blacked since it was put 
up, when we were younger, and the car was 
fresher and brighter, many years ago. We 
know it has worn out many coal boxes and 
shovels in its day, and will wear out many 
more, before it finally finds its way to the junk 
shop. We have taken many sly peeps into the 
newsboy’s storehouse, sitting away off there in 
the corner, dark and mysterious ; to us it looks 
like the weather-beaten chest of some provident 
old salt, who has made many voyages in his 
time, and knows the value of oaken plank and 
paint and iron, and heavy padlocks. Every 
thing in the car and about it interests us. We 
have even pored over the Rules and Regula¬ 
tions, and tried hard to understand them. They 
are very long, and very carefully worded, and 
very definite about every thing. They look 
crisp and cheery hanging there on the side of 
the car; but we always come away from their 


18 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


perusal impressed with the great number of 
things that the baggageman must do or must not 
do, under the threat, dire and significant, of 
instant dismissal, if lie disobeys. Our sym¬ 
pathies have secretly been with the baggage¬ 
man in this unequal struggle with Power, and 
we have many times watched him with curious 
interest, to see if some outward convulsion of 
nature did not rack his frame when passing 
near these portentous rules ; but no, like a 
patient long habituated to the use of an 
abhorred poison, their presence no longer dis¬ 
turbs him. 

A cozy chair in the baggage car! in it there 
is freedom, abandon; here one observes many 
things, while free to cogitate, to smoke, to 
dream ; here the casual acquaintance or the 
bore can not come ; we see him in the distance ; 
we hear him rattle at the door; he calls, but 
we heed him not; the rules are inexorable. 
Here we idly watch the baggageman busy with 
his affairs. Through the wide-open doors, on 
either side of the car, we see the waving fields, 
the lowing herds, the quiet towns, the belated 
passengers hastening to the depot; nothing 
escapes us. 

Admittance to the baggage car is much 
sought after by many widely different people. 
The official who wishes to seclude himself; the 
patron who wishes to be on good terms with 


19 


Baggage Car Traffic. 

the boys; the rollicking young blades of the 
country who look upon a baggage car as a snob 
does upon a box at the opera — all these knock 
at its friendly doors. Many trainmen seek it 
because of its comfortable and home-like 
appearance ; in it they feel easy, and in sedate 
and friendly chat with the baggageman they 
while away the time with great pleasure to each 
other. We tilt our chair contentedly back 
against a friendly post and watch the trunks as 
they come tumbling end over end into the car; 
many of them we have seen before, and we at 
once take them into our confidence as old 
friends. The* most of them have a grim and 
battered look like hardened soldiers, veterans of 
many a bitter encounter. Some of them are just 
starting out in life, prim and glossy with varnish 
and bright with new buckles and with polished 
plates. These, the voyagers of a day, present 
themselves to the baggageman with all the con¬ 
fidence and the freshness of the innocent and 
the inexperienced; we contemplate their subse¬ 
quent history, the many surprises in store for 
them, with sadness. But it is amongst the old 
and shattered trunks, creaky with time and hard 
usage, that we recognize our friends. Life’s 
roughest storms have swept over them and left 
them warped and battered and worn. All the 
sharp corners and the stiffness that was the 
occasion of so much discomfort to them when 


20 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


they first presented themselves before the 
baggageman years ago, vanished long since. 
They come into the car with a wheeze and a 
creak as if deprecating the unnecessary rude¬ 
ness with which they are handled ; but the 
baggageman has other things to think of as he 
deftly catches them up and drags them swiftly 
awa}% and, as we watch them, they seem to 
settle themselves down in the places assigned 
them, snugly and contentedly, like the old 
voyagers they are. 

We often catch ourselves speculating as to the 
owners of these trunks. Who are they ? What 
do they do ? Where do they live? How old 
are they? Are they married? Some of the 
owners we know. Now it may seem strange, 
but it is nevertheless true, that there are many 
points of similarity between a trunk and its 
owner. That trunk over there, for instance, 
so carefully covered and strapped and ad¬ 
dressed ! That belongs to a precise person, 
who does every thing at the proper time and 
place. Now we feel certain that the person 
who owns that trunk never has any notes go to 
protest, never asks any indulgences. We would 
not hesitate a moment to lend such a person a 
hundred dollars, if the}^ asked it, but they 
wouldn’t ask it. The owner is probably a 
woman, maybe a man, but if it is, his digestion 
is impaired, or his lungs are affected. Who- 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


21 


ever the person may be, one tiling is certain, 
their daily life is without a blemish. They 
have no little weaknesses that they can not 
overcome. No moments when it is hard to be 
good. No lingering reluctance to leave a good 
dinner, a pleasant little party. No thought of 
counting a hundred, and then two hundred, 
perhaps a thousand, before turning out in the 
morning. No! nothing of the kind, they 
haven’t the time, and besides why should they? 
With them life is a terrible reality and all who 
can not, or will not, keep up with the colors 
should be taken out at daylight and summarily 
shot as deserters. Nevertheless, these are the 
people who keep the world in motion, feed its 
poor, build and support its hospitals, endow 
its universities. The improvident, the good 
natured, and the clever would be glad to do all 
these things, but they never do ; their hearty 
appetites leave them nothing to divide. 

That little old trunk over there with a sly 
look of discretion and responsibility about it! 
That belongs to a lad who is going to a far-off 
city to commence the great struggle alone. 
We saw him get on at a station a few miles 
back ; there was no mother there, we noticed, 
to bid him good bye, and to watch the car that 
bore her boy away. No father—no one but a 
few boys who were loitering about the depot. 
He is eoinor to live with an uncle ; this uncle is 

o o 


22 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


a kind but irascible old man; the boy will 
not stay with him long, but will drift out alone 
into the world. He will not go to yie bad, no 
proud man ever did. He will succeed, because 
there is disgrace in failure. If he had a kind- 
hearted old mother to coddle and excuse him, 
it would, perhaps, be a long while before he suc¬ 
ceeded, but as it is, he will succeed from the 
first. 

That old trunk over there with a shrunken 
top like a grave that has partly fallen in! We 
have not seen it since its owner started out in 
life years ago, young and vigorous and full of 
lofty aspirations. He is on the train to-day 
coming home, not to gain new life, but to die ; 
coming home to die where his last look may 
linger upon the scenes hallowed by the recollec¬ 
tions of childhood; he has broken down in the 
race. The acquaintances and associates in the 
great world he has left will talk about him for 
a while; will tell each other of his many good 
qualities ; his many acts of kindness, the bright 
prospect that lay before him, and then the 
space he occupied in the world will be closed, 
and there will fall upon him, and his memory 
and his acts, the great silence of eternity. 

That brand new, wide-awake, roomy trunk 
there in the corner belongs to a thrifty mer¬ 
chant in a bustling little town further up the 
line. It is full of chintzes and calicoes and 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


23 


delaines. By and by these goods will make 
their appearance upon the merchant’s counter, 
and when he is asked to put a price upon them, 
he will deplore with tremulous voice the exces¬ 
sive rates that make them so dear to the con¬ 
sumer. The trunk itself he will sell. We 
notice he has had it checked free as personal 
baggage, but that was doubtless only intended 
as a little bit of pleasantry upon his part; for we 
have often heard him inveigh bitterly against 
the discriminations exercised by the railroads 
in favor of trade centers and heavy shippers; 
indeed he esteems their honesty but lightly, and 
loves to talk about them as grinding monopolies. 

That long trunk there tied with a rope, that 
belongs to a farmer. There are many attrac¬ 
tive things about farm life ; I remember that I 
used to be a farmer when a boy. IVky teeth 
chatter and my feet grow cold even now when 
I think of it; I remember that I used to get up 
at four o’clock in the morning and build a fire 
with green cottonwood in a cracked cook stove 
that stood in a corner; afterwards I used to 
break the ice in the water bucket and fill the tea¬ 
kettle, and put the potatoes on to boil; after that 
I went out into the icy night air with a per¬ 
forated tin lantern, greasy with tallow and black 
with smoke, to milk the cows, and feed the 
horses and the cattle and the hogs. It seems to 
me my days were all spent in the open fields 


24 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


digging potatoes or picking corn. I remember 
that my hands were always very dirty, and very 
cold, and very numb, and that I used to blow 
them a great deal to keep them warm. I re¬ 
member that I got home at dark and fed the 
stock and bedded the horses, after which I went 
to bed in a cold room and dreamed that I was a 
cripple, and sat in a corner all day long by a 
stove that was always red hot. There are many 
attractive things about farm life, doubtless, but 
if so, they were never experienced by the 
writer. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TRAINBOY: WHAT HE IS AND WHAT HE 

DOES. 

Upon many roads the trainboy is known 
amongst his associates as The Butcher. 

This title, given in derision, indicates the san¬ 
guinary propensities of his character. Without 
being quarrelsome he loves strife; the excite¬ 
ment and the danger appeal to his imagination; 
there is a directness and a simplicity about a 
fight that inexpressibly charm him. It is his 
courage and his manliness that separate him 
from the idle and the vicious. 

The trainboy is not confiding ; his experiences 
teach him to be wary; he is habitually distrust¬ 
ful. We have observed him with curious inter¬ 
est lock and unlock his storehouse many hun¬ 
dreds of times a day; he trusts nothing to 
chance, but keeps every thing locked. 

The trainboy, or news agent, is sometimes 
employed by the railway company. In such 
cases he usually receives for his services a cer¬ 
tain percentage of his sales; this commission 
varies for different articles and classes of goods. 
Sometimes the privilege of peddling upon the 
trains and in the depots is purchased outright of 


26 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


the company. In such cases the contractors 
establish depots of supplies. From these depots 
the trainbo} r s are furnished what they need. 

The wants of the different trains are not the 
same. The requirements of the suburban or 
accommodation trains are exceedingly simple ; 
they are restricted to the daily papers, a meager 
assortment of cigars, and, in some cases other 
articles, such as fruit, are added. The profits 
are small, and the sales at best precarious ; the 
lines of the suburban newsboy are not laid in 
pleasant places. 

The express or mail trainboy occupies the 
same relation to the suburban boy, that the 
wholesale merchant does to the huckster or 
retail trader. The express and mail trainboy 
has a broader field; he carries a comparatively 
large stock of goods; the stock is replenished 
from day to day; the goods are carefully 
selected ; the supply of fruit, cheap cigars and 
indifferent literature is inexhaustible. The 
gains of the express trainboy are considerable; 
he occasionally suffers losses; these losses 
brighten him up; he experiences from day to 
day, in an acute sense, all the anxieties and per¬ 
plexities of the man of affairs. This boy carries 
a watch, and calls people indifferently by their 
last name. He hopes in time to become a brake- 
man—perhaps a conductor . 1 

i. Sometimes the news agent is no longer a boy. He is a 
man seeking his living with the sobriety and industry that 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


27 


The trainboy has many peculiarities. If he 
has occasion to speak of an officer of the roacl 
he articulates his name in full, not forgetting 
his initials and his titles. He does not do this 
lightly and frivolously, but slowly and methodi¬ 
cally, as if talking in his sleep or reading from 
a printed poster. In conversation he speaks, 
habitually, of the property as “ our ” road. 

Sometimes the trainboys contract directly 
with the railway company for the privileges 
they enjoy. However expedient such a system 
may be, it is not always practicable. The boys 
frequently can not furnish the requisite security. 
The golden habits of business that come only 
with age and experience the boys do not pos¬ 
sess, hence a railroad company must farm out 
the business, supplying the stores itself, or it 
must contract upon the best terms possible with 
responsible parties. The latter course is the one 
most usually adopted. Sometimes the trainboy 
receives for his services, from the contractor, 
a certain percentage of his sales. This per¬ 
centage varies with the character and product¬ 
iveness of the train he works. In some cases 
he purchases outright, of the contractor, the 
privilege of working a particular train. As a 
rule this right is only sold for the more unpro¬ 
ductive trains. 

characterize men in other callings in life. With these this 
sketch has nothing to do; we are speaking of the trainboy as 
we knew him, when we traveled more, years ago. 


28 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


The newsboy is frequently a valuable aux¬ 
iliary to the train force in expelling from the 
cars drunken and lawless passengers. He 
delights in incidents of this character in his 
daily life. 

The trainbov is not destitute of pride ; he 
loves to be called The News Agent. 

A title has a peculiar fascination for a railway 
man; it animates and absorbs him. If it is 
indefinite, good ; if it is sonorous, so much the 
better. A string of titles adorns him like 
precious jewels or gorgeous raiment. Pride and 
ambition animate every grade of the service ; the 
youthful subordinate, without title or position, 
yet loves to speak of himself sententiously as 
Mr. So and So of the Great North Eastern; 
thus is he elevated and rescued from obscurity. 

When not otherwise engaged the newsboy 
indulges in much aimless chat with his com¬ 
panion, the baggageman. He has withal an 
eye for the beautiful, and carries on many sly 
flirtations with the rustic maidens aloim the 

o 

route; to all he is inconstant; he can not 
afford to marry, besides he is too young. Many 
times a day he counts over his sales and figures 
up his profits ; his system of bookkeeping is 
very simple. .While his receipts are meager, 
his wants are boundless. 

It is the duty of the trainboy to see that the 
passengers are supplied with drinking water. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


29 


This he carries through the cars offering it to 
the occupants of each seat. The service is 
gratuitous. During its performance, however, 
he is enabled to carefully study the peculiarities 
of his passengers. 

The more amiable characteristics of the train- 
boy are but little understood; it is only the 
uneducated traveler that looks upon him as a 
friend. To him the trainboy unbends; he sells 
him various articles which he does not want; 
receiving therefor exorbitant prices. For these 
concessions the trainboy gives him in return 
many valuable hints; he answers all his silly 
questions; he explains to him his route, his 
stopping places, the prices he should pay, the 
people he must avoid. Armed at all points, the 
unsophisticated traveler pursues his way; to 
him the trainboy is a guide, philosopher, and 
friend. 

But the world at large is not friendly to the 
newsboy; to them he is passe ; they endeavor 
not to see him as he passes through the car 
cheerfully crying his wares; they gaze out of 
the window ; they look at the ceiling ; the lines 
about their mouths harden, the lips become 
rigid, the body remains motionless; they refuse 
to answer his inquiries ; they ignore him. This 
indifference, this palpable aversion, does not 
disturb him; he pursues his way and bides his 
time. 


30 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


In the course of a few hours’ ride he appears 
and disappears many hundreds of times. Whence 
comes he ? whither does he go ? from out what 
capacious reservoir draws he his supplies? 

The trainboy has his base in the baggage 
car. Here, amid the labyrinth of trunks, band- 
boxes, and carpet bags, he has his storehouse; 
this is his den; in it he carefully arranges his 
wares and takes account of his resources ; here 
he plans his campaign against his enemies, the 
passengers; it is here that he sets his traps for 
them and artfully digs the pitfalls into which 
they ultimately fall. 

The resources of the trainboy are illimitable, 
his confidence in himself is unbounded. He 
does not ask advice. He has no confederate. 
Sometimes he talks over his plans, but in the 
execution of them he acts alone. 

From his den he early sallies forth with 
water pot or newspaper to study and classify 
his passengers; he looks upon them as his, 
absolutely. While the thirsty traveler grate¬ 
fully accepts the proffered cup of water the 
newsboy, with outward unconcern, secretly 
seeks to fathom his weakness. 

Sometimes the trainboy has the air of a cadet 
of good connections, or presents a dapper-like 
appearance that utterly deceives us as to his 
calling. The pretty girls are frequently the 
weakness and the destruction of this boy. To 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


31 


appear well with them he spends his earnings 
for expensive raiment, unctuous pomades and 
choicest confection; with him trade is mechan¬ 
ical and life but a fitful dream. 

But the newsboy we know possesses little 
in common with this exotic; he is restless, 
gaunt, hollow-eyed, he has a sallow complexion, 
and lank hair that grows well down towards 
his eyes; his head projects well back and his 
eyes are on a line with the tip of his ears; his 
feet present a surface of resistance out of all 
proportion to the thin and weakly legs to which 
they are attached. There lingers about this 
unequally developed and growing boy an ever 
present odor of tobacco. This fragrant weed 
charms and intoxicates him. Enveloped in its 
smoke he forgets his isolation and his misery ; 
he dreams of better associations and a higher 
life; an exalted ideal animates him for the 
moment. 

Our trainboy is dependent wholly upon him¬ 
self, youthful, illiterate, abused, he looks upon 
the world as his enemy; in his encounters with 
it his weapons are his wits and his impenetrable 
assurance. 

He is the embodiment of shrewdness, the 
incarnation of activity. 

Society refuses to adopt him; it fails to 
recognize any special reason why he should 
live; its ridicule excites his animosities. The 
society that ignores him he pursues. 


82 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


Instances are not of rare occurrence where 
the trainboy by his industry, his shrewdness, 
and careful economy, has accumulated a little 
fortune of four or five thousand dollars. Many 
avenues are open to him outside of his regular 
business in which to trade and dicker. 

There is no reason why the petty position 
of trainboy should not in this country be the 
preparatory school to a life of influence and 
wealth ; it inculcates habits of independence 
and self-reliance, so essential to the man of 
business; the incumbent must account promptly 
and fully for the goods intrusted to him ; he 
handles considerable money and early learns to 
know its value. He is a merchant in a small 
way; his credit is his capital. This credit is 
strengthened or destroyed precisely as the 
credit of the great merchant is strengthened or 
destroyed. He learns to discern the little wants 
of the traveling public and his necessities teach 
him how to make those wants contribute some¬ 
thing to his slender purse. 

The foundations of great fortunes are often 
laid in ways quite as humble and by means of 
transactions quite as petty as those we have 
described. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


33 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE TRAIN BAGGAGEMAN. SOMETHING ABOUT 

HIS DUTIES : HIS REPUTATION ABROAD : HIS 

PECULIARITIES. 

Here in the baggage car we discover the 
train baggageman; this is his field; here he 
reigns; genial withal he is much maligned; 
courted by the multitude, he is secretly feared by 
many; numbering his admirers by scores he 
counts his enemies by millions. 

The duties of the train baggageman are quite 
important; they are some times arduous. He 
must be correct in transcribing figures. It is 
his duty to make a record of each check and 
parcel carried; he must arrange and assort the 
baggage so as to economize space ; it must also 
be arranged so as to facilitate its rapid delivery. 

The preservation of the baggage from harm 
occupies his thoughts. His experience teaches 
him to place the light and unstable articles at 
the top, the heavy pieces at the bottom ; as this 
plan is the easiest its fulfillment follows as a 
matter of course. 

The baggage transported by express and 
mail trains is very great; the delivery of each 
article at its proper destination and at the 
proper time, therefore, requires both accuracy 
3 








34 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


and attentiveness; these qualities the baggage¬ 
man possesses. 

The baggageman is a semi-mail agent; he 
distributes with faithful care the voluminous 
correspondence of the Company between officials 
located at different points on the line ; the 
myriads of reports, statements and accounts 
reach the headquarters of the Company through 
his hands. He handles each letter as if it was 
registered and contained money; of course this 
is not always so, but there are exceptions to 
every rule. 

The train baggageman is usually promoted to 
the place from the position of brakeman. 
Upon many lines the acceptance of the position 
of baggageman practically excludes the person 
from all hopes of ultimate promotion to the im¬ 
portant office of conductor. 

There are, of*course, many men acting as bag¬ 
gagemen who are in every respect competent to 
fill the place of conductor, but the fact that as 
a class they are excluded from that position by 
railway managers is, perhaps, sufficient evidence 
of the propriety of such a course. 

Many witty as well as many absurd things 
are told about the baggageman. His enemies 
accuse him of a want of politeness; they say 
that he is reckless and indifferent; certain it is 
his destructive propensities have long since 
become proverbial. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


35 


His traducers tell us, in effect, that devasta¬ 
tion marks his route through life and that his 
pathway is strewn with the fragments of trunks 
wantonly destroyed ; that the sight of a weakly 
or decrepit piece of baggage excites him to mad¬ 
ness ; his eyes shining at such times with a pro¬ 
longed and unnatural luster, his aspect in other 
respects beingrepellant in the extreme. While 
consumed with this delirium his dexterity is 
said to be marvelous and his strength prodigious. 
Gigantic pieces of luggage are caught up by 
him high in air, and precipitated with incredible 
velocity against impassive obstacles; articles 
are hurled into their allotted place with a 
vehemence that is as destructive as it is appall¬ 
ing ; in fact that baggage is crushed and other¬ 
wise wrecked by him at such times in pure 
wantonness. 

We are not prepared to give credence to 
these statements; they bear unmistakable evi¬ 
dence of exaggeration and are, consequently, 
unreliable. 

The railway world recognizes the baggage¬ 
man as amenable to the same influences that 
govern his fellows. All the natural impulses of 
the man are good; it is his disposition to 
be amiable. In his intercourse with his asso¬ 
ciates we find him especially friendly. He seems 
well disposed towards the world at large. He, 
however, resents at all times, and everywhere 






36 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


(except in the presence of his superiors) every 
effort that is made by passengers or others to 
fill his car with excessively bulky articles, or 
articles that do not properly come under the head 
of baggage. Now it is the constant disposition of 
the public, to cover articles of the last mentioned 
description into the baggage car. Especially is 
this so with suburban residents. Against this 
disposition the baggageman at once arrays him¬ 
self. It is his nature to do so. Upon this issue 
he boldly antagonizes the public. Now the 
public desire the good will of the baggageman 
above all things else, but while endeavoring 
to placate him they still seek by surreptitious 
and other means, to convey into his car the 
articles he abhors. 

We do not wish to be understood as saying 
that the baggageman objects to small and com¬ 
pactly arranged parcels of a miscellaneous char¬ 
acter ; on the contrary, he is quick to acquit the 
owners of such articles of any sinister intention 
to abuse the confidence of the company or the 
good nature of the baggageman. 

So true is this that we frequently find him in 
good natured and friendly chat with the owners 
of such parcels, but he resents as a gross and 
inexcusable outrage, the attempts that are made 
to fill his car with articles that should never seek 
conveyance except by freight trains. Cooking 
stoves, baby carriages, clothes horses, gigantic 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


37 


trunks, barrels of flour, chicken coops, onions, 
window sashes, step ladders, dried mackerel, 
flower stands, and similar articles, are not, nor 
ever were, repulsive to him in the abstract, on 
the contrary, he recognizes them in their way as 
eminently useful and respectable articles. All 
or many of them are used in his own home ; but 
when, amidst the roar of the engine, the ringing 
of bells, the crying of numbers, and the general 
hurry and confusion of loading and unloading, 
articles such as we have named meet his 
troubled gaze, he freely confesses that the im¬ 
propriety of their presence in a baggage car so 
appeals to his weak understanding that a 
species of insanity sometimes takes complete 
possession of him ; for his acts at such times, he 
can not and ought not to be held accountable. 

It is undoubtedly true that the feeling upon 
upon the part of the baggageman that we have 
described is largely attributable to a belief upon 
his part, that his Company, in the cases men¬ 
tioned, is not receiving its just dues. Once let 
him feel that order, and method, and fair deal¬ 
ings characterize the traffic that is carried in his 
car, and no more faithful and painstaking 
official can be found anywhere. Who can 
doubt this that has noticed the tender care, the 
artlessness, and the unceasing solicitude he dis¬ 
plays in watching over a dog, or an article of a 
personal nature that he has been privately 






38 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


feed for taking charge of ? At such times we 
discover him at his best, and we feel that a 
proper understanding is all that is required to 
make him equally particular with every article 
of property intrusted to his care. 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


39 


CHAPTER V. 

WHAT CONSTITUTES BAGGAGE? 

Upon all railway lines the passenger is entitled 
by common consent, or the law of the state, to 
have a certain amount of baggage transported 
without charge. Of what does this baggage con¬ 
sist ? What is meant by the word baggage ? No 
statutory enactments in the United States 
answer these questions, and the decisions of the 
courts, partaking of the eccentricities or biases 
of the judges, are not uniform or definite in 
their interpretation of what constitutes the bag¬ 
gage of a passenger on a railway. 

While the aggregate sense of these decisions 
can not, perhaps, be accepted as finally disposing 
of the subject, their examination is none the 
less interesting and instructive. The general 
effect of the decisions referred to is favorable to 
the passenger. This is not surprising. It seems 
to be their intent to declare that baggage con¬ 
sists of the wearing apparel of passengers, the 
articles of a purely personal character to which 
they are habituated , 1 their clothing, the articles 

I. “ The quantity and character of baggage must depend 
much upon the condition in life of the traveler, his calling, 
habits, tastes, the length or shortness of his journey and 
whether he travels alone or with a family .”—Dibble v. Brown , 
12 Ga., 226. See also Hutchings v. Western, &c., 25 Ga., 64. 

“ Such apparel and other articles necessary for a person’s 




40 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


necessary to the daily comfort of their bodies 
and minds, the books they wish to read, the 
money necessary to pay their current expenses , 1 
the weapons required for their protection , 2 the 
jewelry commonly worn by them, and the 
watches they carry. It consists of the common 
articles of wearing apparel belonging to the 
children of passengers, although no fare is 
charged b}^ the railway company for such chil¬ 
dren. The trunk or case in which the baggage 
of a passenger is enclosed is. also esteemed as 
part and parcel of such baggage. One learned 
judge has declared that the poor man is entitled 
to have his mattress, with the accompanying 
blanket and pillow, franked by the railway 
company . 3 Another judge of great research 
and acumen, doubtless, has intimated that the 
gun and fishing tackle of the hunter 4 ought, in 

comfort and convenience whilst away from home, with the nec¬ 
essary sum of money for his expenses. This usually constitutes 
baggage, and both parties so understand it, when it is received 
by the company.”— Cin. crV.\, v. Marcus , 38 III., 223. 

1. “It must be fully understood that money can not be con¬ 
sidered as baggage, except such as is bona tide taken for trav¬ 
eling expense, and personal use; and to such reasonable 
amount, only as a prudent person would deem necessary and 
proper for such purpose.”— Judson v . Fall R. R. R. 5 Cush. 
Mass., 74. 

2. “ A revolver is included as personal baggage.”— Davis v 
Mich. Southern 6° JV. Ind. R. R. Co , 22 III. 278. 

3. “ A bed, pillows, bolster and bedquilts belonging to a poor 
man, who is moving with his wife and family, may properly be 
called baggage.”— Ouimit v. Hens haw, 35 Vt., 622. . 

4. “ I do not intend to say that the articles must be such as 
every man deems essential to his comfort ; for some men may 
carry nothing or very little with them, others consult their con- 


Baggage Cay' Traffic. 


41 


justice, to be franked. Without being specific 
on the point, it is evident that the decision is 
intended to embrace, incidentally, the hunter’s 
accoutrements, including his dog. Upon many 
lines the gun and dog are good naturedly 
accepted and passed without charge, but the 
right of the passenger to have them passed free 
is not admitted. This is undoubtedly contrary 
to the just intent and spirit of the decision of 
the erudite judge we have just quoted. In 
Europe a fixed charge is made for transporting 
dogs, whether belonging to passengers or other¬ 
wise . 1 There seems to be no reason whatever, 


venience by carying many things. Nor do I mean to say that 
the rule is confined to wearing apparel, brushes, razor, writing 
apparatus, and the like, which most persons deem indispen¬ 
sable. If one has books for his instruction or amusement; car¬ 
ries a gun or fishing tackle, they would undoubtedly fall within 
the term baggage, because they are usually carried as such. 

“ Samples of merchandise are not baggage within the com¬ 
mon acceptation of the term .”—Hawkins v. Hoffman , 6 Hill , 
N. Y. 590. 


1. “Dogs.— Not exceeding 10 miles...06 each. 


Above 10 miles 

and 

no 

t exceeding 20 

miles, 

0 

12 

44 

20 

<4 

44 

44 

“ 30 

ii 

O 

18 

44 

30 

a 

44 

4 4 

“ 40 

i < 

O 

25 

a 

40 

t i 

44 

4 

“ 80 

<< 

0 

37 

u 

80 

a 

44 

4 ( 

“ 100 

U 

0 

50 

< t 

100 

u 

u 

u 

130 

(4 

0 

62 

i t 

130 

u 

44 

(( 

“ 150 

(4 

0 

75 

44 

150 

44 


< < 

“ • 200 

4 ( 

I 

00 

U 

200 

a 

n 

u 

250 

4 4 

I 

25 

44 

250 

u 

u 

n 

“ 300 

44 

I 

50 


Increasing at the rate of I2c for each additional 50 miles, or 
part of 50 miles. 

“ Dogs are not allowed to be taken into the company’s 
carriages, but will be tied up in the van. No dog is allowed 
to go except when secured by a chain or collar, or safely packed 
in a basket, or crate. The charge for carriage of dogs, the 















42 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


why a railway company should carry a dog free. 
It might, with equal propriety, be asked to trans¬ 
port saddle horses without charge. 

WHAT CONSTITUTES BAGGAGE IN OTHER 

COUNTRIES. 

Passengers are subjected to the same restric¬ 
tions practically in Great Britain that they are 
in the United States , 1 but in France it is 

property of passengers traveling by the same train, must, in 
all cases, be prepaid.” — Regulations Midland Railway of 
England , January , 1878. 

“ Dogs and other animals will not be suffered to accompany 
passengers in the carriages, but will be conveyed separately and 
charged for.” — Regulations London North-Western Ry., 
England, December, 1876. 

“ The company are not and will not be common carriers of 
dogs, nor will they receive dogs for conveyance, except on the 
terms that they shall not be responsible for any greater amount 
of damages for the loss therefor or injury thereto, beyond the 
sum of $10, unless a higher value be declared at the time of 
delivery to the company, and a percentage ot 25 per cent, 
paid upon the excess of value beyond the $10 so declared.’’ — 
Ibid. 

Note. — Here and elsewhere in quoting from foreign author¬ 
ities the rates are reduced, when practicable, to United States 
currency. 

1. “A commercial traveler took a ticket at Leeds for Mac¬ 
clesfield, but when he had got as far as Staleybridge he discov¬ 
ered that the case containing samples of cloth was missing. 
The consequence was that he was delayed at Macclesfield one 
day and two nights, sustaining loss by the delay, of course 
being unable, without samples, to transact business. The 
judge of the county court decided that the London & North- 
Western Railway Company could not be called upon to give 
compensation, because the samples were merchandise, and no 
notice having been given to the company, there was no con¬ 
tract to carry. For this view of the law the judge was able to 
cite the eminent authority of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, 
the late Mr. Justice Willes, Mr. Justice Lush, and the late 
Chief Justice Erie. Mr. Justice Willes ruled positively that 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


43 


tacitly admitted that a traveler may take with 
him, as baggage, any kind of article or thing 
that he chooses, except inflammable or explosive 
matter, carriages, live sto*ek, or valuables, such 
as bonds, stocks, coin (except for use), valuable 
papers, etc., the charge for such articles being 
regulated by law. 

In connection with what constitutes baggage, 
a prominent railway manager of Ireland , 1 
writes: “ Passengers’ luggage, according to 
our statutes and the decisions of our courts, 
consists of what passengers may, according to 
their station in life, require to bring with them in 
the way of clothing, such as would be necessary 
for their daily wants. This will also include 
jewelry to a certain amount, such as would be 
worn or carried by persons according to their 
social position .” 2 

4 the passenger paying the fare for his ticket must be taken 
according to common sense and ordinary experience, to con¬ 
tract for himself and his ordinary personal luggage, and that 
such contract can no more extend to any thing beyond the 
ordinary personal luggage than it can be extended to a man’s 
entire worldly possessions.’ Chief Justice Erie held, in a case 
tried a few years since, that documents and bank notes taken 
on a journey by an attorney, to be used at a trial at a county 
court, were not ordinary luggage, and that the carrier was not 
liable for their loss. So we may, we suppose, take it as 
settled, in the present state of the law, that 4 the term personal 
luggage is confined to that which is personal to the passenger, 
and carried for his own use and convenience, and that what is 
carried for the purpose of business does not come within the 
description of ordinary luggage, unless accepted as such by the 
carrier.’ ” — The Railway Service Gazette , England. 

1. Geo. Edw. llbery. 

2 . 44 We understand baggage to be clothes for personal use, 

excepting * * * the baggage of others, which latter is 

subject to a higher tariff .”—Roman Railway . 


44 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


In Austria baggage may be said to comprise 
what a passenger needs for his private use, con¬ 
tained in trunks, valises, portmanteaus, satchels, 
hat-boxes,.small cases* etc.; all larger boxes and 
kegs (when done up in a mercantile way), and 
all articles not destined for the special use 
of the traveler, may be taken as baggage excep¬ 
tionally, but passengers are not allowed to carry 
as baggage, under any circumstances, articles 
especially restricted by the regulations, such as 
mail matter, documents, precious stones, pearls, 
jewelry, gold, silver, explosives, etc . 1 “ The 
dogs of passengers must be forwarded in 
separate cars, and the charges must be paid in 
advance. After arrival at destination the dogs 
must forthwith be taken care of by shipper, the 
company not being responsible for them after 
their arrival at destination .” 2 

The regulations of the Spanish roads compel 
them to accept as baggage about every thing 
required for the convenience or comfort of the 
passenger. The list is unique. The director 
of a prominent road in Spain 3 defines baggage 

1. “Any party shipping goods, under a false declaration, 
which are excluded from forwarding or only taken condition¬ 
ally, must pay a fine, besides the one stipulated by the police 
regulation or penal law, of six florins for each kilogramme of 
such freight shipped or delivered for shipment. This fine can 
be collected either from the shipper or receiver.” — Austrian 
Service , 1877. 

2. Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. 

3. Compania de los ferro carriles de Madrid. A. Zoragoza 
Y. A. Alicante. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


45 


as “ articles such as wearing apparel, dressing 
clothes for the use of the passenger, tools of 
his art or trade, objects used to protect the 
passenger from inclement weather, camp or cot 
bedsteads, books used by passenger, articles 
of a proper character enclosed in trunks, cases, 
mattresses, arquillas , baskets, hats, carpet bags, 
sacks, pillows, handkerchiefs, and other objects 
used as a cover or wrapper.” 

WHY SHOULD BAGGAGE BE TRANSPORTED 
WITHOUT EXTRA CHARGE? 

The question as to what legally constitutes 
baggage being partially answered, many other 
inquiries naturally occur in connection with 
the subject. That no charge shall be made 
for baggage unless it exceeds a reasonable 
amount, is well understood in the United States. 
The practice is fixed by law 1 and common 

I “ When a person pays for his passage over the road, bopi 
parties understand that it includes payment for his baggage, 
not exceeding a special weight.” — Cin. 6° C. R. R. Co. v. 
Marcus , 38 III., 219. 

“A reasonable amount of baggage, by custom, or the cour¬ 
tesy of the carrier, is considered as included in the fare of the 
person.”— Orange Co. Bk. v. Brown , 9 Wend. A r . Y. 85 *, 
Harvkins v. Hoffman , 6 Hill, N. Y. 586. 

“ The passenger had paid the price of a passenger ticket. 
For this ticket he had the right to have his baggage carried.” 
—Hutchins v. Western , &c., 25 Ga., 64. 

“It is well settled that the reward for carrying the baggage 
is included in the passenger’s fare.”— Jordan v. Fall River R. 
R., 5 Cushing , Mass., 69. 

“ The Chicago and Milwaukee company received the whole 
passage money from Milwaukee to New York city—fare which 




46 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


usage, so far as the custom of to-daj is con¬ 
cerned, and it can not well be changed ; but what 
were the motives that animated those who orig¬ 
inally established the practice ? What were 
the influences or prejudices that governed them 
when they consented to allow a lapse of what 
might have been made an important and ever 
increasing source of revenue to the railway 
companies ? 

The extent and magnitude of what, in this 
country, is commonly called the Express busi¬ 
ness is trifling compared with the vast amount 
of baggage that is annually transported. Yet 
the revenue derived from the Express traffic, 
although the business is carried on under com¬ 
paratively unfavorable circumstances, and at 
great expense, has aggrandized the original 
projectors of the enterprise and enriched the 
companies subsequently interested in it.. 

Many of the practices in vogue upon our 
railroads at the present moment are precisely as 
they were fixed originally by the comparatively 
inexperienced men who managed the first rail¬ 
ways that were built. These practices have 
descended to us without modification or chancre. 
Yet there can be no doubt that the managers 
referred to only partially comprehended the 
colossal character of the interests involved in 

covered the carriage of both the passenger and her baggage 
safely to the latter city .”—Candee v. Penn. R. A\. 21 IVis., 

587. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


47 


the decisions made by them from day to day, as 
new questions were presented. As we may 
naturally suppose, these decisions were not 
uniformly the same in different sections or 
countries. In Europe, to illustrate the point 
we have made, the Express, or parcel traffic, 
was at once incorporated into and made to 
form a part of the ordinary business of railway 
companies. Here private individuals, and com¬ 
panies formed by them for the purpose, took 
charge of this important and valuable busi¬ 
ness, and have retained almost exclusive con¬ 
trol of it ever since. Doubtless they perform 
the work quite as satisfactorily to the com¬ 
munity as the railroad companies could, and it 
is not certain that the latter have not derived 
as much net income from the business as 
they would if it had been conducted by them¬ 
selves. But are both of these systems under 
which the Express traffic is conducted right? 
if not, which is the right? We find similar 
diversities in every department, branch of ser¬ 
vice, and sphere of railway life. Doubtless the 
conclusions arrived at by the early managers 
as to what was expedient and best in reference 
to the baggage of passengers were not more 
sagacious or wise than many other customs 
irrevocably fixed by them. 

The fact that the amount of baggage allowed 
to pass free varies in different countries, makes 


48 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


it apparent that there was no concert of action 
upon this important subject. At this late day 
we can, perhaps, do no more than surmise what 
were the reasons originally adduced upon the 
part of railway managers for allowing any 
baggage whatever to go free. If they had 
decided to charge a certain rate for the baggage 
and allow the owner to pass free, many of us 
would undoubtedly esteem the custom a very 
proper one, and one not to be hastily or lightly 
called in question. 

We may presume that the rules of the trans¬ 
portation lines in existence at the time the first 
railways came into being had something to do 
with the decision of the managers of the latter 
in reference to baggage. The stage coaches 
and canal boats that preceded and for a time 
actively competed with the railroads, were 
accustomed to carry a certain quantity of per¬ 
sonal baggage free. This established practice, 
it may be supposed, had its influence with the 
early managers. In consenting to adopt the old 
custom, it is reasonable to suppose that the rail¬ 
way managers greatly exaggerated the extent 
and duration of the rivalry these primitive 
modes of conveyance were destined to offer. 

The inconvenience of weighing and collect¬ 
ing charges on each and every piece of lug¬ 
gage presented for shipment may have had 
something to do with the decision to allow it 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


49 


to go free. It is possible that in fixing the rate 
for carrying the passenger it was intended to 
make it large enough to cover the cost of trans¬ 
porting the passenger’s luggage. If this was 
the intention originally, it is quite certain that 
equal thoughtfulness has not subsequently 
characterized the fixing of passenger rates, and 
the heart of the average railway stockholder 
must sink within him when he contemplates, 
as he will, the enormous loss of revenue to his 
company involved in the original decision to let 
the personal baggage of the passenger go free. 

BAGGAGE UNACCOMPANIED BY OWNER. 

While the railway companies in this country 
are compelled to transport free a certain amount 
of baggage when accompanied by the owner,, 
neither the laws nor the customs of the coun- 

% 

try require them to forward baggage, as such* 
when unaccompanied by the owner. 

In the latter case baggage is subject to all the 
conditions, iucluding carriage, of merchandise 
or freight of an analogous character. 

And further: when a passenger does not 
possess any personal luggage, or the amount he 
does possess falls short of the stipulated 
quantity he is legally entitled to, he can not 
in consequence claim or exercise the privilege 
of having transported without charge baggage 
belonging to another. 

4 


50 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


THE QUANTITY OF BAGGAGE THAT MAY BE 

TRANSPORTED FREE—THE CUSTOMS IN OTHER 

COUNTRIES. 

Having decided, wisely or otherwise, that per¬ 
sonal baggage should go free, the peculiar char¬ 
acter of the privilege rendered it extremely 
likely that it would be abused. It was impos¬ 
sible for the railway company to ascertain by 
actual inspection in each instance whether the 
packages presented consisted of baggage or 
merchandise. Every species of deception 
would therefore be practiced. Other objections 
presented themselves ; cases would constantly 
arise where the personal baggage of the pas¬ 
senger would be so great, comparatively, as to 
exceed all just and reasonable limits. Hence it 
became necessary to fix a maximum quantity 
which should in no case be exceeded. In 
fixing this maximum it was evidently the inten¬ 
tion of the managers to strike a happy mean 
between the wealthy and the poorer classes. 
The comparative wants of this average class in 
different countries may perhaps explain the fact 
that the quantity allowed varies under different 
governments. 

The quantity of baggage which a passenger 
may transport free upon the roads of Conti¬ 
nental Europe in no case equals the amount 
which it is permitted him to transport here. 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


51 


In Germany fifty-five pounds is the limit. In 
France first class passengers are allowed sixty- 
six pounds of baggage, children from three to 
seven years being entitled to forty-four pounds. 
In Italy forty-four pounds of baggage may be 
carried free by all classes, in the compartments 
occupied by them. The baggage is restricted 
in bulk by the regulations to 18x22 inches. 
In practice, however, the prescribed limits are 
not strictly observed, passengers being allowed 
to take into the cars a hand trunk equaling, if 
not exceeding the regulations, besides a travel¬ 
ing-bag, rolls of shawls and other small pack¬ 
ages. These parcels are, as far as possible, 
placed in the racks over the heads of the occu¬ 
pants of the compartment. A passenger who 
wishes to leave his seat temporarily may secure 
its retention by placing in it some article of 
baggage. Passengers upon the Italian roads 
are compelled to pay for all baggage which they 
are unable to carry into the compartments as 
described above. 1 

In Austria all classes of passengers are 
allowed fifty-five pounds of baggage. Small 
baggage may be taken into the cars, if passen¬ 
gers are not molested thereby, and if tax and 

I. The Russian custom in reference to baggage is the same 
practically as in Italy, I am informed. The railroad only 
transports free such articles as the passenger can carry in his 
hand without inconvenience to himself or to others. For 
everything that goes into the baggage van a charge is made. 


52 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


duty regulations admit; receipts are not issued 
for baggage taken into the cars. The Rotter¬ 
dam and Antwerp steamers from Harwich, 
Eng., advertise that passengers going to the 
principal points in Europe will be allowed fifty- 
six pounds of baggage free of charge over the 
various railroads by which they travel. In the 
British Isles the amount of baggage is fixed at 

one hundred and twenty pounds for first class 

% 

passengers, one hundred pounds for second 
class passengers, and sixty pounds for third 
class passengers. 1 

In the United States the railways seem quite 
uniformly to have adopted one hundred pounds 
as the maximum quantity of baggage that may 
be carried free by first class passengers. 2 More 

1. “The weight of passengers’ luggage allowed free of 
charge is : For each first class passenger, 120 pounds 

“ second “ 100 “ 

“ third “ “ 60 “ 

except where the act of the carrying company requires an al¬ 
lowance of a greater weight * * * One hundred weight 

of personal luggage is allowed generally to all bona fide emi¬ 
grants, on their production of proof to the companies booking 
them that they are such.”— Reg. Clearing House , Eng., 1870. 

2. “Passengers are entitled to have one hundred pounds 
of personal baggage ; but it is expected that all ordinary per¬ 
sonal baggage (not meaning merchandise) will be received, 
when accompanied by the owner, without charge. On this 
point discretion must be used. In all cases where extra bag¬ 
gage is carried, they will see that the freight is paid before de¬ 
livery ; and when any such money is received they will note 
the amount in a book kept for that purpose, and pay it over 
to the conductor every day, taking his receipt on their book.” 
— Regulations of a IVestern Company , 1853. 

“ Eighty pounds of personal baggage will be allowed each 
passenger, and all articles other than personal baggage, and 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


53 


liberal than the roads of Great Britain, no dis¬ 
tinction is made here between a first or second 
class passenger. We allow the emigrant or 
trans-continental passenger to transport two 
hundred pounds. 1 It is possible that these 
concessions to the poorer classes were based 
upon humanitarian grounds; possibly upon 
convenience; it may be they never had any 
basis except ignorance or an extravagant dis¬ 
regard of the rights of the stockholders. The 
second class business is still in its infancy in 
the United States, but the precedents governing 
it each year become more and more firmly 
established. It seems but reasonable to sup¬ 
pose that as the first class passenger pays a 
higher rate than his brother of the second 
class, he is fairly entitled to a greater amount 
of baggage. The large amount of baggage per 
capita which emigrants require to be trans¬ 
ported may have had its influence originally 
with managers in fixing the maximum amount 
to be franked at two hundred pounds. It is 
not an exaggeration to say that the excessive 
quantity of baggage we allow second class pas¬ 
sengers and emigrants, is a gift voluntary and 
magnanimous upon the part of the railway com¬ 
all excess of personal baggage, will be charged for at double 
the first class rates for freight on freight trains, and must be 
prepaid .”—Eastern Company, 1863. 

1. The amount formerly allowed, as appears from the old 
tariffs, was one hundred and fifty pounds. 


54 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


panies, and as such it should be known and 
appreciated by those who receive it. 

Passengers crossing this Continent, going to 
or coming from China, Japan and other trans¬ 
pacific countries, are allowed two hundred and 
fifty pounds of baggage. This concession is 
made to meet the sharp competition of ocean 
routes via the Isthmus of Panama. Upon these 
routes the steamship companies allow passen¬ 
gers a specified number of cubic feet. This space 
is capable of accommodating a much greater 
quantity of luggage than the one hundred 
pounds to which railway travelers are usually 
restricted. 

One more exception to the general rule gov¬ 
erning the baggage of first class passengers 
remains to be noticed. It is that of the Commer¬ 
cial Traveler. The amount allowed him varies 
upon different roads. Upon some of the more 
conservatively managed lines he is restricted to 
one hundred pounds. Upon other roads he 
is allowed two hundred pounds. Upon still 
other roads he is allowed two hundred and fifty 
pounds. Any allowance in excess of the usual 
one hundred pounds is based upon commer¬ 
cial grounds, for, so far as we have any infor¬ 
mation on the subject, the purely personal bag¬ 
gage of the Commercial Agent is not excessive. 
Indeed, without having any exact data at our 
command, it is believed that the average 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


55 


amount required by a first class passenger would 
amply suffice for his wants, but in consideration 
of the fact that he travels much and is compelled 
to carry samples of the goods he sells, many 
of the railway companies transport for him, free, 
parcels or baggage not exceeding in gross an 
average of two hundred and two hundred and 
fifty pounds in weight as we have stated. The 
active competition that exists between railways 
explains in part the concessions that have been 
extended to the commercial traveler. 

THE COST OF TRANSPORTING BAGGAGE. 

The question of limiting the quantity of bag¬ 
gage is always an interesting one with travel¬ 
ers, and it is common to hear them make the 
statement that the expense to the railway com¬ 
pany of transporting a trunk weighing one 
hundred and fifty pounds is practically no 
greater fhan the expense of transporting a 
trunk weighing two-thirds of that amount, pro¬ 
vided the room is sufficient in the baggage car. 
This is a superficial view of the subject, and not 
warranted by the facts in the case. Every 
pound that is added to the weight of a train 
increases the cost of moving it; it adds to the 
quantity of fuel consumed by the locomotive, 
and increases the wear and tear of the machin¬ 
ery and track. The cost of carrying fifty 


56 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


additional pounds is not great, perhaps, in a 
single instance, but multiply the amount 
indefinitely as it would be necessary to do 
if the restriction was removed and the expense 
at once assumes enormous proportions. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


f* *T 

O J 


CHAPTER VI. 

RESPONSIBILITY OF OUR RAILROADS FOR BAG¬ 
GAGE LOST OR DAMAGED. 

The responsibility of a railway company for 
baggage lost or damaged while in its possession 
is unquestioned in the United States. 1 It is 

I. “ That any such railroad company whose agents or 
employes shall carelessly or willfully injure, or allow to be 
injured or lost, any trunk or baggage (bearing a check, as pro¬ 
vided in section 2910) either by improper handling or otherwise, 
shall be liable for damages in a sum not less than double the 
amount of the actual damage.”— Chapter 63, section 2911, page 
632, Revised Code of Mississippi , 1871. 

“Any person employed by a railroad corporation in this 
state who shall willfully, carelessly,or negligently break, injure, 
or destroy any baggage, shall be liable for the amount of dam¬ 
age to the owner thereof and may be arrested, and on convic¬ 
tion before a justice of the peace, fined in any sum not exceed¬ 
ing two hundred dollars and be held in custody or confined in 
the county jail until such fine shall be paid: Provided that the 
remedy hereby given against such employe shall not lessen 
the liability of such corporation.”— Hurd’s Ills. Revised 
Statutes of 1877, chapter 114, section 79. 

The provision in the criminal code of Illinois, chapter 38, 
section 193 reads : 

“ Injuring or destroying Baggage. —If any baggage master, 
express agent, stage driver, hackman or any other person 
whose duty it is to handle, remove or take care of trunks, 
valises, boxes, packages or parcels, while loading, transport¬ 
ing, unloading, delivering or storing the same, whether or not 
in the employ of a railroad, steamboat or stage company, shall 
wantonly or recklessly injure or destroy the same, he shall be 
fined not exceeding two hundred dollars.” 

Mass. Statzite. Supplement of 1860-72, chapter 307,/. 709. 
—“Any baggage master, express agent, stage driver, hackman 
or other person whose duty it is to handle, remove or take care 


58 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


thus a matter of the utmost consequence in 
this country that each company should be able 
to test the truthfulness of all claims presented 
for baG^aofe lost or damaged, and in the event 
the demand made upon it is just and proper it 
is important that it should be able to deter¬ 
mine accurately which one of its subordin¬ 
ates, if any, have been negligent or at fault 
in the premises. 

RESPONSIBILITY OF RAILWAY COMPANIES *IN 

OTHER COUNTRIES FOR BAGGAGE LOST OR 

DAMAGED. 

There is no limit to the liability of railroad 
companies for the baggage of passengers in 
Great Britain, unless the baggage includes ar- • 
tides specifically mentioned in the Carrier s 
Act, such as silks, jewelry and furs. The 
carrier’s responsibility for such articles does not 
exceed fifty dollars. As the act referred to 

of the baggage of passengers, who shall willfully or recklessly 
injure or destroy, any trunk, valise, box, package or parcel, 
while loading, transporting, unloading, delivering or storing 
the same shall be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dol¬ 
lars.” 

Iowa , Code of 1873, chapter 10, sec. 2183.—“ The proprie¬ 
tors of all omnibusses, transfer companies, or other common 
carriers, doing business within the limits of this state, and 
their agents, shall be liable for damages occasioned to baggage 
or other property belonging to travelers through careless or 
negligent handling, while in possession of said companies or 
carriers. And in addition to the damages recoverable, there- 
for, the parties recovering the same shall also be entitled to 
an allowance of not less than five dollars for every day’s deten¬ 
tion caused thereby, or by a suit brought to recover the same.” 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


59 


defines the responsibility of railway companies 
and limits it within reasonable bounds, the com¬ 
panies can not still further lessen their account¬ 
ability for luggage lost or damaged by them, 
by special contract or agreement or other act of 
their own. 

In reference to a company’s liability for lug¬ 
gage lost or damaged in France, a distinguished 
railway director of that country 1 says: “In 
case of loss the companies are responsible for 
the integral value of the baggage. The value 
is fixed a ’ V amiable between the company and 
the parties, or by the courts from the owner’s 
affidavits and the probabilities based on his or 
her situation,wealth, customs, and the object of 
the trip. For instance, we could not very well 
admit that the baggage of a countrywoman 
going to market to sell farm produce would 
reach twenty dollars, but it would not be sur¬ 
prising if the baggage of a lady of high rank, 
going to a party, reached the sum of two thou¬ 
sand dollars, on account of jewelry, lace, etc., 
of which it was composed. A company is not 
responsible for stocks, bonds, coins, notes, and 
similar valuables that may be imprudently de¬ 
livered to it without notice, as baggage, but it 
is holden for such jewelry or moneys as passen¬ 
gers may have in their possession, that are 
required by the wants of the journey. Further 

I. E. Solavranze. 


60 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


than this the French legislature does not per¬ 
mit the companies to limit their responsibility.” 

The laws fixing the responsibility for lost or 
damaged baggage are entirely equitable and 
just to the railway companies in Italy. In 
that favored country if the value of the baggage 
is not expressly stated at the time of its delivery 
to the railway company, the owner can only 
claim compensation for it if lost or damaged at 
the rate of five francs per kilogramme or 95 
cents per 2 T V pounds. Doubtless the railway 
companies frequently pay more than luggage 
is worth even under this arrangement, but it is 
not possible under this system of settling to 
perpetrate any gross swindle. The companies 
are compelled to insure the baggage of passen¬ 
gers whenever called upon to do so, and in such 
cases must pay for the amount insured in the 
event of loss. Except when known to be in 
fault, the railway companies are not responsible 
for the luggage carried by passengers in the 
compartments occupied by them, such baggage 
being under the care of the owner and subject to 
his disposition at all times. This practice is not 
peculiar to Italy. Passengers in all countries 
may be said to be responsible for the luggage 
which they carry into the cars occupied by * 
them. In case of delay in the delivery of 
baggage the indemnity paid by the Italian 
companies is based upon a fixed tariff. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


61 


The liability of Austrian companies for bag¬ 
gage transported by them is defined in the 
regulations of Austrian roads, 1877, as follows : 

“ When baggage is not securely packed it can 
be refused. All pieces of baggage must be 
cleared of former post and railroad marks. 
When this is not done, the management can 
not be made responsible for damages in the 
event the baggage goes astray. 

“ Railway companies are responsible for the 
safe and undamaged delivery of baggage for 
which a receipt has been issued, provided the 
baggage is securely packed, and marked, and 
conforms in contents to the prescribed regula¬ 
tions. When the value of baggage is not 
stipulated at the time of delivery, claim can 
only be made (in the event it is lost or dam¬ 
aged) at the rate of six florins silver for each 
kilogramme, but if the settlement is for damaged 
baggage the weight of that which is not damaged 
is first deducted. If the value of baggage is 
stipulated at the time of its delivery an addi¬ 
tional charge equal to ten kreuzer for each 150 
kilometer is charged, but the charge must 
not exceed two pro mille of the total for 
the stipulated value, unless the amount thereof 
is entered in the receipt which the company 
gives for the baggage, by the clerk at the for¬ 
warding point. Claim can not be made for lost 
baggage until three days after the expiration of 


62 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


the time of the arrival of the train by which it 
was forwarded, and such payment excludes fur¬ 
ther claim. If the baggage should afterwards be 
found the owner must be informed of the fact 
if his place of residence is known, and upon 
the return of the amount allowed him by the 
company, the baggage is to be delivered to him 
either at point of departure or place of 
destination. In the event any real damage is 
sustained in consequence of delay in the time 
of delivery of baggage, such damages can not 
in any event exceed ten kreuzer per kilogramme 
for each day until it is found or may be consid¬ 
ered as lost. Baggage left in the depots or cars 
must be kept subject to the call of the owner 
for three months; at the expiration of that 
time it may be disposed of in accordance with 
the laws governing such cases. 

“ Baggage delivered at the depot too late and 
that can not be billed in consequence, but is 
forwarded, exceptionally, is taken at the risk 
of the owner. 

“ In case payment for losses sustained must 
be made for dogs, and no special value has been 
declared, the railroad company’s responsibility 
shall not exceed three silver florins for each 
dog.” 

The laws of Spain do not limit the liability 
of railway comp allies for baggage lost or dam¬ 
aged unless deception is practiced by the pas- 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


63 


senger. The authority already quoted says : 
“ There is no limit to the liability of railway 
companies in reference to baggage. The pas¬ 
senger whose baggage contains jewelry, precious 
stones, bank notes, moneys, shares stock, bonds 
and similar articles of value must exhibit the 
same and state their value and selling price 
before the baggage is checked, and if he fails to 
clo this the company is not responsible in case 
of theft or loss.” 

LIMIT OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR BAGGAGE LOST 

OR DAMAGED IN THE UNITED STATES. 

The responsibility of the railway companies 
in the United States for baggage lost or dam¬ 
aged while in their possession, when arising 
from accident or through the carelessness or 
negligence of their servants, is not limited to 
any stated sum, except in those cases where a 
contract has been entered into between the rail¬ 
way company and the owner of the property. 1 

i. “ Baggage of traveler is to be regarded as goods received 
by common carrier under the ordinary terms of common car¬ 
riage.” 

Hannibal R. R. Co. vs. Swift, 12 Wal. 262. 

Dexter vs. A. B. & N. Y. R. R. Co. 42, N. Y. 326. 

Powell vs. Meyers, 26 Wendell, 591. 

Bennett vs. Dutton, 10 N. H, 481. 

“ And the common carrier is the insurer of such baggage.” 

Hannibal R. R. vs. Swift, 12 Wal. 262. 

“ This liability of insurer can not be limited except by 
special contract.” 

I. C. R. R. vs. Morrison, 19 Illinois, 141. 

Compiled Laws of Michigan, sec. 2386, p. 783. 

Hurd’s Statute of 1877, sec. 82, p. 774. 

Code of Iowa, 1873, sec, 2184, p. 394. 





64 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


And to enable a company to fix the maximum 
limit of its responsibility for the baggage it 
transports a general notice to the public posted 
in its depots or printed upon its tickets is not 
sufficient, but it must be formal and specific in 
each instance. 1 

SYSTEM REQUIRED TO ENABLE A COMPANY TO 

FIX THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LOST OR DAM¬ 
AGED BAGGAGE. 

In connection with claims for injury to or 
loss of baggage, it is of the utmost importance 
that the records of a company should be pre¬ 
cise in reference to every transaction of the 
baggage department. The possesison of this 
record involves a system of returns of a more or 
less elaborate character. The system to be of 
practical value must be such as to enable the 
officer in charge to locate each check used and 
to follow it from the moment it is fastened to 
the package until it is finally detached at the 

i. “A notice to the general public is not sufficient; such notice 
must be given to the party individually and the expressed 
assent of the passenger is required to give effect to such re¬ 
striction.” 

Western Transportation Co. vs. Newhall, 24 Ill. 266. 

Buckland vs. Express Co. 97 Mass. 127. 

B. & O. R. R. vs. Brady, 33 Md. 383. 

Adams Express Co. vs. Stettauer’s, 61 Ill. 184. 

“ A bare notice on a ticket does not limit the carrier’s lia¬ 
bility. 

“ But it is otherwise when the notice is brought home to the 
passenger, either at the time or before the purchase of the 
ticket.” 

Rawson vs. Pa. R. R. 48^N. Y. 212. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


65 


place of destination and forwarded to the gen¬ 
eral baggage office for redistribution. 

To insure this it is necessary 

1st. That a detailed record be kept at the 
general baggage office of the numbers of the 
checks in the hands of the various agents, as 
explained hereafter. 

2d. Permanent records must be kept by the 
subordinates along the line; of the numbers of 
the checks attached to packages sent forward ; 
also the numbers of the checks received with 
parcels ; also the date forwarded or received, 
name of train baggageman, number of train* 
etc. This record is important and necessary in 
the event any of the reports required at head¬ 
quarters should miscarry. 

3d. The station agent must report to head¬ 
quarters the number of each check attached to' 
baggage forwarded, the number of train by 
which baggage was shipped, its place of desti¬ 
nation, the date forwarded and name of train 
baggageman. 

4th. Returns embodying the same class of 
facts as those just described must also be re¬ 
turned by agents in reference to all baggage 
received by them. 

5tli. The train baggageman should be re¬ 
quired to report the particulars of all baggage 
received and discharged by him, viz: the date, 
number train, place of shipment, point of 
5 








66 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


delivery, and number of check, or if no check 
is attached, then a description of the property. 

6th. In the event property is in a damaged 
condition when received, station agents and 
train baggageman should be required in each 
instance to make a careful statement of the 
facts upon their records and returns. 

7th. Reports from agents of the unclaimed 
parcels lying at their stations. 

With the foregoinginformation systematically 
arranged and filed in the general baggage office, 
the department will not under ordinary circum¬ 
stances experience any difficulty whatever in 
finding lost baggage ; and in reference to prop¬ 
erty damaged while in the possession of the 
company the returns will acquaint the General 
Baggage Agent with the names of the various 
subordinates through whose hands it has passed, 
and what is important, these returns will also 
state whether the property was in bad order or 
otherwise when received by such subordinates. 

SAFEGUARDS MUST BE PROVIDED TO SECURE 

EFFICIENCY AND PREVENT FRAUD. — SOME 

OF THE DECEPTIONS PRACTICED. 

A company is thus in a great measure pro¬ 
tected against careless and inefficient servants, 
as well as against any attempted imposition by 
the public. 

The importance of this surveillance can not 
be overestimated. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


67 


Under its workings the injury to luggage is 
only nominal, the losses unimportant in number. 

Its effect upon employes is to curb the vicious 
and invigorate the slothful. 

It renders any attempt to defraud a company 
difficult as well as dangerous. This is for¬ 
tunate upon many accounts aside from the dol¬ 
lars and cents it involves. A railroad company 
views with a distrust born of many impositions 
all bills of cost for baggage lost or stolen. Its 
archives are crowded with the records of imag¬ 
inary losses sustained by passengers. 

Fraudulent, claims, equally with those that 
are good, enter into the minutest particulars as 
to articles, cost, etc., with a frankness and a 
familiarity that would deceive anybody but an 
expert. All of them are sworn to and many of 
them are fortified with concurrent evidence of 
the most plausible and convincing character. 
It is not too much to say in connection with 
this subject of lost baggage, that the claims 
made by passengers are never less than the 
value of the property. 

As intimated above, the value fixed by pas¬ 
sengers under oath for lost baggage is in many 
cases grossly in excess of the real amount. 
This is probably the experience of every prom¬ 
inent road. Instances are not of rare occur¬ 
rence where large sums have actually been 
claimed and paid to indignant and outraged 







68 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


passengers for the contents of trunks supposed 
to have been lost or stolen. In many instances 
these trunks have subsequently been recovered 
and have, in a multitude of cases, upon investi¬ 
gation, been found to contain only the worn-out 
raiment, the cheap apparel, the cast-off articles 
of some Jeremy Diddler, or common swindler. 
Not that we by any means desire to be under¬ 
stood as saying that the claimants referred to 
uniformly passed for disreputable characters. 
On the contrary, a majority of them, perhaps, 
held themselves as eminently respectable and 
were generally so reputed in the community at 
large. 

It is the experience of railway companies that 
many very respectable people class transactions 
of the kind referred to, when practiced upon 
large corporations, as adroit or clever subter¬ 
fuges ; not as acts to be reprobated. 

A company can only hope to defeat claims 
for excessive or fraudulent amounts. It can not 
always do this. These facts being understood 
and expected it is well to make every possible 
provision in advance to render the presentation 
of unjust claims impossible. It is believed to be 
possible to surround the passengers’ baggage 
with-such checks and safeguards as practically 
to render losses impossible except in cases of 
fires, wrecks, and kindred disasters. To secure 
this desirable result it will be necessary to hold 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


69 


those who in any way handle or are responsible 
for baggage to a direct personal accountability 
for all damages or losses occurring through any 
neglect of duty or carelessness upon their part. 

Another phase of this question must be 
noticed. The officials connected with the bag¬ 
gage department understand more clearly than 
other railway officers the necessity that careful 
forethought should be exercised to throw every 
possible safeguard around the baggage in the 
possession of a company at its various stations 
and warehouses. When this is not done a 
company suffers continually from the depreda¬ 
tions of petty thieves. A still greater danger 
menaces it, as the history of more than one 
company illustrates. It may at any time 
become the victim of an organized conspiracy. 
The plan is very simple. The parties to the 
conspiracy first check their baggage as in other 
cases. While it is in the possession of the 
company and waiting to be called for it is 
stolen. In time the owner appears, presents 
his check and claims his property. The com¬ 
pany can not produce it, and unless they can 
prove the existence of the conspiracy they are 
compelled to pay for the property, the valua¬ 
tion being fixed by the owner. 








70 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


CHAPTER VIE 

THE MANIPULATION OF BAGGAGE. 

In no country in the world are passengers so 
little annoyed with the care of their luggage 
as in the United States. The systematic ma¬ 
chinery in vogue for handling baggage is at 
once simple and effective. This system is the 
product of fifty years of constant study and 
experiment. Compared with the practices of 
railroads in England and upon the continent of 
Europe, it may be said to be perfect. Here the 
favorable comparison ends. 

Our baggagemen are rarely if ever subjected 
to the severe discipline and minute supervision 
that they are abroad, particularly in Europe. 

The foreigner's idea of an efficient civil serv- 
ice is too much a matter of every day practice 
to tolerate any lawlessness upon the part of the 
men occupying subordinate positions of that 
character. The luggageman is employed to 
guard and protect the property, and any display 
of unnecessary violence, any evidence of indif¬ 
ference to this trust, is punished. The haughty, 
supercilious, contemptuous baggageman is 
unknown in Europe. And this leads us to 
believe that what we have heard is, perhaps, 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


71 


true after all, that man’s native energy and 
independence of character is crushed out, or, 
in other words, can not exist in its pristine 
vigor under the monarchical governments of 
Europe. 

THE PRIMITIVE MODE OF HANDLING BAGGAGE. 

When the canal packet and the stage coach 
afforded the only means of public conveyance 
across the country, the passenger neither re¬ 
ceived or expected a receipt for his baggage. 
He contentedly watched it as it was placed 
aboard, and from time to time, as the journey 
progressed, he noted its presence and carefully 
inspected its condition. At the various junc¬ 
tions he attended personally to its transfer to 
connecting lines. The railways of Great 
Britain have in the main perpetuated these 
practices, and the passenger dances attendance 
upon the guard now as he did in the old-fash¬ 
ioned days of half a century ago. 1 All this is 
changed upon this continent. 

THE LOCAL BAGGAGE CHECK. 

Discarding the simple customs of the stage 
driver and canal captain, our railway companies 

i. “ In order to prevent delay and inconvenience on the 
re-delivery of luggage at the end of the journey, passengers 
are requested to place on each article their name and address. 
And notice is hereby given that the company will not be 
responsible for the care of the same, unless fully and properly 
addressed with the name and destination of the party, nor for 
any articles conveyed inside the carriages .”—Regulations Mid¬ 
land Railway of England , fan. 31, 1878. 


72 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


early provided small metal plates or tags, for 
convenience of handling baggage. 

Each of these plates bears a separate number. 

To each plate a leather strap is attached. 

The strap is fastened in a simple manner to 
the handle of the trunk. 

The plates we have described are called 
checks. 

Each check is provided with a duplicate ; 
this duplicate is given to the passenger, and its 
possession by him is the evidence of the posses¬ 
sion of the baggage by the railway company. 

Each railway station has a different Number 
allotted to it by the baggage department. 

The number of the station to which the bag¬ 
gage was destined was formerly roughly marked 
in chalk upon the package. The baggage of 
travelers came in time to be covered with these 
chalk marks. In marking a new number upon a 
package the old numbers were sometimes over¬ 
looked, or only partially erased. Sometimes 
the new number was obliterated by the rain or 
by coming in contact with other objects. The 
baggage, in consequence, frequently went 
astray, to the great inconvenience of the trav¬ 
eler, and the annoyance of the railroad com¬ 
pany. 

A simple device changed all this. Instead 
of marking the package, the number of the 
station was entered, in pencil, on a small paste¬ 
board tag. This pasteboard tag was slipped 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


73 


on the strap that attached the check to the 
package. The system was now apparently 
complete, so far as the checking of baggage des¬ 
tined to local points was concerned. 1 

i. Local Check. 




Note: Checks should always have one or more asterisks 
stamped upon their face to distinguish them from the dupli¬ 
cate given to the passenger. 




Form of Local Check to he attached to baggage when there 
are charges on account of excess weight. 











74 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


SUPPLYING AGENTS WITH LOCAL CHECKS. 

In reference to providing agents with the 
checks required to do the business, each agent 
and baggageman should be supplied with a 
certain number of local checks. The routine 
in connection with the supplying of agents and 
baggagemen with checks is as follows : John 
Doe, agent, has local checks assigned him num¬ 
bered from one hundred and fifty to eight hun¬ 
dred and fifty. These checks are charged up 
against Doe in the general baggage office, a 
careful record being kept of the number of 
each check. As fast as the checks are used by 
John Doe, and are taken up by other agents, 
they are sent to the general baggage office 
and are from there returned to John Doe to be 
used again. This process is forever repeating 
itself. Each station is thus kept supplied with the 
checks it requires without delay or the neces¬ 
sity of making a special requisition from time to 
time as those on hand become exhausted. 
Under the plan sketched it is only necessary for 
the General Baggage Agent to know the number 
of the check attached to a piece of baggage, to 
enable him to tell the name of the agent or bag- 
gageman who checked it, also date and train. 
This information greatly facilitates his efforts in 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


75 


tracing lost baggage, and in locating damages 
sustained by property while in the company’s 
possession. 

THE REVERSIBLE, OR INTER-ROAD CHECK. 

The form of checks already described pro¬ 
vides for luggage between local points. It 
remains to describe the check used in those 
cases where baggage is destined to points located 
upon other lines. 

To accommodate this business the reversible 
check is generally used. To illustrate its special 
features we will suppose that the agent at Boston 
desires to check a package over certain lines to 
San Francisco. For this purpose he uses a 
check, one side of which reads, Boston to San 
Francisco, following this the number is given, 
and the initials of the lines over which it is to 
pass. On the reverse side of the check it reads, 
San Francisco to Boston, the number and 
initials being repeated. This check, it will be 
seen, is good either way .between Boston and 
San Francisco, and can be used only between 
these points. It accurately describes the route 
it is to follow, and upon its arrival at its desti¬ 
nation it tells the receiving agent from whence 
it came. It is retained by such agent until 
further occasion for its use arises. Nothing 





76 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


could be more simple or efficacious than this 
form of check. 1 


I. REVERSIBLE CHECK. 

(To be attached to inter-road baggage.) 


ST. LOUIS 
MILWAUKEE 

C.&A. 

c.&nvwt. 

~G\Qy 149 


V 


Note : The reverse side of this check reads Milwaukee to 
St. Louis. The check is consequently good only between these 
points. 

REVERSIBLE CHECK. 

(Form to be delivered to the passenger.) 


( 

BETWEEN 

ST LOUIS 
MILWAUKEE 


N 


V 


149 

C.& A. 


C. 8c N.W. 
















Baggage Car Traffic. 


77 


THE SYSTEM OF HANDLING BAGGAGE PERFECT. 

It is hardly possible to conceive of any system 
of billing baggage that could be more certain to 
accomplish the results desired at so small a cost, 
than that we have described. It involves little 
labor or expense to the railway company, and 
it protects the passenger from loss of property, 
relieves him of all care, and reduces to the 
minimum the time required to receive and bill 
baggage at the forwarding station. 

THE PRACTICE OF CHECKING BAGGAGE COM¬ 
PULSORY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Like all reforms in connection with the rail¬ 
way service that possess any practical value, the 
system of checking baggage was voluntarily 
inaugurated and perfected by the railway com¬ 
panies. That period is past. It is no longer 
discretionary with the railways whether they 
shall continue to carry out the practice or not. 
Custom and the laws of the state have made 
the practice compulsory. 1 

I. “A check shall be fixed to every parcel of baggage when 
taken for transportation, by the agent or servant of such cor¬ 
poration, if there is a handle, loop or fixture so that the same 
can be attached upon the parcel of baggage so offered for 
transportation, and a duplicate thereof given to the passenger, 
or person delivering the same on his behalf; and if such 
check be refused, on demand, the corporation shall pay to such 
passenger the sum of ten dollars to be recovered in a civil 
action ; and further, no fare or toll shall be collected or received 
from such passenger; and if such passenger shall have paid his 


78 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


HOW BAGGAGE IS BILLED IN OTHER COUN¬ 
TRIES. 

In Great Britain the railway companies 
paste a printed label upon the baggage received 
by them for transportation ; tins label bears 
the name of the station to which the luggage 
is destined; no receipt or other evidence of 
delivery is given to the passenger. Upon 
arrival at his destination, he points out his 
baggage and it is delivered to him by the 
company’s servant. 1 A prominent railway 

fare, the same shall be refunded by the company ; and on pro¬ 
ducing said check, if his baggage shall not be delivered to 
him, he may recover the value of such baggage,” — Laws of 
Michigan , 1873, Mo. 198, page 496, section 11 of article II. 

“ Every railroad corporation when requested, shall give 
checks or receipts to passengers for their ordinary baggage 
when delivered for transportation on any passenger train, 
which baggage shall in no case exceed one hundred pounds in 
weight for each passenger, and shall deliver such baggage to 
any passenger upon the surrender of such checks or receipts. 
Any such corporation willfully refusing to comply with the 
requirements of this section, shall pay a fine of not less than 
ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, which may be 
recovered before any court of competent jurisdiction, in an 
action of debt, in the name of the People of the State of Illi¬ 
nois for the use of the person aggrieved. Provided, that no 
passenger shall be entitled to receive checks or receipts for any 
baggage unless he shall have paid or tendered the lawful rate 
of fare for his transportation, to the proper agent for such 
corporation. Hurd's Illinois Statutes , 1877, chapter 114, section 
78 , p. 774 - 

Other states have laws of the same general tenor as the 
above. 


1. “ Passenger’s luggage must be invariably marked, unless 

in charge of the owners. Porters are not to take charge of 
luggage Without first ascertaining where the passengers are 
going, and when the porters do not affix the labels themselves, 
they are to make the owner’s destination distinctly known to 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


79 


official of England, writes, referring to the man¬ 
ner of handling baggage as described above, 
“ There are objections to this method, but the 
instances of fraud practiced upon us are very 
rare indeed.” Doubtless this is true, but the 
opportunity for the practice of deception upon 
the company appears really to have no limit. 
On the other hand, in the event the baggage is 
lost, it would seem as if the passenger must 
experience considerable difficulty in proving to 
the satisfaction of the company that he ever 
delivered it any baggage. The hardship thus 
works both ways. The possession of a check 
or written receipt renders the proof required 
comparatively simple. 

In Austria a receipt is given the passenger 
upon the delivery of the baggage to the com¬ 
pany ; a slip with number corresponding to the 
receipt and indicating the place of destination 
is pasted upon the baggage. Baggage is care¬ 
fully weighed in each instance, the liability of 
the company being, as in Italy, based upon the 

the man who does this work. The porters are to invite the 
passengers to take their luggage into the carriage with them, 
whenever there is room under the seats, and on no account to 
promise that all shall be right, so as to prevent the owners 
looking after it. The company will not be responsible for 
luggage or other articles left at a station, except at those 
appointed for the purpose, and at other stations all luggage left 
can only be allowed to remain at the risk of the owner, but it 
may be deposited behind the counter,or otherwise, out of sight, 
so that none but the owner may attempt to identify and claim 
it.” English Road. 





80 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


weight when the value is not expressly stated. 
The presentation of the receipt at the place of 
destination is accepted by the companies as 
evidence of ownership, and sufficient authority 
for delivery of the luggage. The system of 
billing baggage pursued b} r the Austrian rail¬ 
ways is followed substantially by all the rail¬ 
ways of Europe. 

In Italy all baggage is weighed and a receipt 
filled up specifying the weight. This receipt 
is given to the passenger. A slip correspond¬ 
ing in number, to the receipt, and indicating 
the destination is attached (pasted) to the 
baggage. Passengers are required to exhibit 
their passage ticket before their baggage will 
be received or weighed, and the slow, method¬ 
ical manner in which the business of weighing 
and billing baggage is conducted by the rail¬ 
way officials greatly exasperates travelers. 

A distinguished American citizen long resi¬ 
dent in Rome, writes as follows under date of 
March 30, 1878, in reference to this subject: 

“ The passenger must produce his ticket 
before his baggage can be weighed and 
receipted, which occasions much annoyance, as 
he can not take his seat in the carriage without 
showing his ticket, and is often obliged to 
wait for the weighing of his baggage until the 
last moment before the starting of the train, 
when it is difficult to find a good seat. * * * 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


81 


If the American railways adopt the practice of 
charging freight on baggage, which would be a 
just measure, the office for sale of tickets and 
receipting of baggage ought to be opened either 
during the day, or for an hour or more before 
the departure of each train, in order to avoid 
subjecting travelers to the annoyance of buying 
tickets and attending to their baggage in the 
hurry of the few minutes allowed for these 
operations in Italy." 

Such an arrangement would in many respects 
be very gratifying to the managers of railroads 
in the United States. In this country the pas¬ 
senger may be said to arrive at the depot at the 
moment fixed for the departure of the train, no' 
margin whatever being allowed the railway 
company in many cases in which to weigh and. 
properly bill the baggage. 

According to the regulations of the Romarr 
Railway Company baggage must be presented to 
be checked from ten to twenty minutes before 
the departure of trains; all baggage not checked 
ten minutes before the trains leave will be 
detained and sent forward by fast freight train. 
It is seldom necessary to rigidly enforce this 
regulation; its object is to provide the time 
required by employes to perform the labor of 
weighing and billing the baggage of passengers. 

The plan of giving written receipts for bag¬ 
gage instead of checks is an admirable one in 
6 

UftHIa, t' 


82 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


many respects. The receipt specifies the weight 
of the baggage, and in the event the baggage 
is lost this information is of value. The great 
objection to the system of giving receipts is, the 
time it takes to fill up the blanks and attach the 
slip to the baggage. The time required to do 
all this does not seem great, perhaps, to those 
accustomed to it, but compared with the Amer¬ 
ican system of checking baggage it is very 
cumbersome and tedious. 

It is barely possible, however, that in the 
matter of expedition the American management 
has overdone the business. The people have 
been educated to believe that only a moment 
is required by railway officials in which to 
waybill the baggage of passengers, and in con¬ 
sequence of this only a moment is allowed them. 

BAGGAGE BILLED THROUGH IN EUROPE. 

Upon many of the great roads in Europe, 
baggage is billed through between distant 
points upon different lines very much as it is 
in this country. It is, however, subject to 
examination by the customs officers at the fron¬ 
tier of the various countries through which it 
passes. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


83 


CHAPTER VIII. 

INSURANCE AND STORAGE OF BAGGAGE BY 
RAILWAY COMPANIES. 

• 

When the baggage of a passenger has reached 
its destination, a railway company is clearly 
entitled to a fair compensation for every moment 
that it remains uncalled for after a reasonable 
length of time. Yet upon the great bulk of 
our roads no effort is made to collect such 
charge, nor do the rules and regulations con¬ 
template any such action, even in the most 
distant or circumscribed way. Such a charge 
would, no doubt, seem petty to many, to 
others it would appear impracticable. It is 
neither. As already shown, every hour that 
the luggage of a passenger remains in the 
possession of a road its safety is endangered. 
If lost or damaged it must be paid for by the 
railway company, and the loss when it occurs 
is not adjusted with judicial fairness on the 
basis of appraisal by disinterested parties, but 
it is based upon the description or table of 
contents as submitted by the owner. Surely a 
company is entitled to a reasonable charge for 
this great risk, this complete insurance of the 
property while in its possession. In addition 




84 


Baggag c Car Traffic. 


to this, the actual cost of watching the property 
and otherwise protecting it is considerable. 
The room it occupies and the inconvenience 
its possession entails would alone warrant a 
company in making a reasonable charge for 
storage. 

As to what would constitute “ a reasonable 
time ” (in which the baggage should be removed 
by the owner) there would of course be a great 
diversity of opinion. Without entering into 
any detailed consideration of the subject here, 
it would seem that an allowance by the railroad 
company of twelve working hours ought to be 
amply sufficient to accommodate every reason¬ 
able emergency of the public. 

STORAGE CHARGED BY RAILWAYS ABROAD. 

A charge of two cents per day is made by the 
railways of England and Ireland for each arti¬ 
cle of luggage left at a station. 

In France a charge of one cent per day is 
made for each article of baggage left in the 
possession of the company; this fee is exacted 
at the starting point as well as at the place of 
destination. In other words, if a passenger 
desires to leave his baggage in the care of the 
company, either before or subsequent to the 
journey, a charge of one cent per day is made. 
The charge exacted for storage in Great Brit- 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


85 


ain or France does not seem to be affected by 
either the weight, bulk, or value of the package. 
In Spain no account is taken of the value of 
baggage in fixing the charge for storage, unless 
the baggage contains extraneous matter. Lug¬ 
gage sent to the depot to await the pleasure of 
the owner, is charged 0, R 05 per piece of ten 
kilogrammes, or at the rate of about one cent 
per day for twenty-two pounds. The same rate is 
charged per day, after the expiration of twenty- 
four hours, for baggage left at the depot by 
passengers at destination. If packages shipped 
under the general head of baggage contain 
articles not properly classed as such, the rate 
of storage is dependent upon the value of the 
property. The question of the bulk of baggage 
does not affect the rate charged. 

In Austria “ the bearer of a receipt can 
demand the delivery of baggage upon the arri¬ 
val of the train by which it was forwarded, 
but he must wait until such time as may be 
necessary for unloading, registering, and revis¬ 
ing by the revenue officers. If a passenger 
desires, he may leave his baggage at the station 
for twenty-four hours without charge, but after 
the expiration of that time he must pay stor¬ 
age.” 1 


I. Austrian Regulations, 1877. 



86 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


THE MEN WHO DESTROY VALUES AND PRECIP¬ 
ITATE RAILROAD WARS. 

Is there any thing to prevent the immediate 
enforcement and collection of a just and proper 
charge for storage of baggage, if any of our 
companies desire to do so? 

Yes; the obstacle that confronts the man¬ 
agement of every railway when it seeks to 
introduce such new practices and rules, as 
experience and observation may teach it, are 
necessary to the more effectual protection of 
the interests of the stockholders. 

What is this obstacle ? 

It is the disposition evinced by a certain class 
of railway officials to render every company un¬ 
popular with the public that seeks to increase 
its receipts by availing itself of new sources 
of revenue. These petty officials never lose an 
opportunity of this kind to attempt to build up 
their company at the expense of rival lines. 
It is their capital, their stock in trade. Shallow- 
pated, they make up in a low order of cunning 
what they lack in respectable ability. It is 
impossible to estimate the harm done to rail¬ 
road interests by these infinitesimal parasites; 
adepts in underhand practices and misrepre¬ 
sentations, they embroil their managers in many 
unnecessary and destructive wars, and in other 
ways keep the companies the} r misrepresent 


Bigg age Car Traffic. 


87 


from realizing the full fruition of their prop¬ 
erty. It is mainly through the efforts of these 
short-sighted officials that so many unnecessary 
and pernicious concessions are made by rail¬ 
roads. They are constantly seeking to outbid 
and undermine other lines, and in doing so the 
profit or productiveness of the business of their 
own lines is destroyed. It seems impossible 
for them to understand that the concessions 
that are only made by one company to-day will 
become common to all to-morrow. 1 

THE AGENCIES OF A COMPANY MADE DEPOSI¬ 
TARIES FOR PARCELS—THE REVENUE THAT 
MAY BE DERIVED THEREFROM—THE SYSTEM 
REQUIRED. 

The collection of storage charges on luggage 
which the owners fail to take away within the 
stipulated time, forms only a part of the reve¬ 
nue which may, with propriety, be derived from 
the accommodation extended to the public. 
Each agency should constitute a depositary in 
a limited way for the convenience of the 
traveling public. At each station a regis- 

I. “Under the present state of things, this company will 
to-day get the start of that company, but as sure as the sun will 
rise on the morrow, the one that over-reached his neighbor 
to-day, and thereby secured what is called a gain, will be met 
on the morrow by a corresponding action that will, in effect, 
neutralize the benefit thought to be gained .”—Address of 
Samitel Powell , Esq., before the General Ticket and Passenger 
Agents' Association at Cincinnati , March 19, 1875* 


88 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


ter should be opened in which every species of 
property left with the agent (except that which 
was checked) should he fully described. These 
deposits would embrace articles of merchandise, 
trunks, bandboxes, carpet-bags, packages of 
various kinds, overcoats, shawls, etc. 

For insuring these articles against loss, and 
for the labor and expense in caring for them, a 
reasonable rate should be charged. 

About the only immediate outlay upon the 
part of the railroad company that this system 
of storage would necessitate, would be the 
expense of the register referred to. This regis¬ 
ter should recite the date of delivery to the 
agent; name of party and description of arti¬ 
cles, and the amount of the charge for storage 
and insurance. It should also give the date 
property was delivered up by the agent and 
the receipt of the owner. 

A simple arrangement of this kind would 
prove a very great convenience to the public 
and a source of moderate revenue to the rail¬ 
road company. It would protect the public 
from loss of property and guard it from imposi¬ 
tion. On the other hand, the collections, 
whether more or less, would inure directly to 
the railway company, to whom they properly 
belong. The labor it would occasion would 
not be great. At present, parcels are left with 
the station officials of railroads but without the 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


89 


exacting of any charge in return. At many 
points the practice has become a great burden 
to the companies’ agents. A slight charge 
would greatly reduce the number of the de¬ 
posits and would compensate the companies for 
those that are made. 

In connection with the care and storage of 
parcels, the use of duplicate stamps 1 would be 
simpler and better in many respects than the 
form of register described above. 2 

These stamps should be numbered consecu¬ 
tively and should be bound in book form. The 
stamp proper should be attached to the parcel 
and the duplicate delivered to the depositor. 
This plan would prevent deception being prac¬ 
ticed upon the company, or at least relieve it 
from the necessity of identifying the owner, 
in each instance the production of the duplicate 
being sufficient evidence of ownership, just as 
the presentation of the duplicate check affords 
sufficient evidence for the delivery of baggage. 

I 

G. W. Ry. Co. 

ORIGINAL. 

890 . 

2 . The date of issue should in all cases be stamped on both 
the original and duplicate. The original and duplicate should 
be bound together and attached to each other by a perforated 
border. The agent should be held accountable for all stamps 
detached from the book. 







90 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


The objection to the use of metal checks for 
this business would be the difficulty of identi¬ 
fying each collection or, in other words, of 
adopting any safeguards that would compel 
faithful accounting for each charge made. The 
stamps should be engraved and numbered con¬ 
secutively. They could not then be readily 
counterfeited, and the agent would be held 
accountable for the value of all numbers 
allotted to him. 

% 

The accounting would be much simplified by 
using only one form of stamp. The minimum 
charge being fixed at the price of one stamp, 
any additional charge to be made being some 
multiple thereof; or to illustrate: For the care 
of a parcel three days or under, the price of one 
stamp would be charged; for over three days 
and under eight days, two stamps would be 
exacted, the second stamp being attached to 
the package when the goods were called for by 
the owner. 

To enable the general accounting officer of 
the company to exercise a constant supervision 
over the business, the duplicate stamp should 
be transmitted to him when delivered up to the 
agent by the payee. 

Such a depository as we have described 
would be an especial accommodation to the 
patrons of every company. Ladies visiting the 
great cities for the purpose of shopping would 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


91 


make use of it. It would be a convenience to 
travelers, stopping en route for a short time and 
desirous of relieving themselves temporarily of 
superfluous articles of luggage or wearing 
apparel. Many other people that can not be 
specifically mentioned would find it a great 
convenience. 

A sj^stem, in many respects similar to the one 
suggested,.is in active operation upon various 
railways abroad, and has been found a great 
convenience to the public and a source of 
considerable profit to the companies practicing 
it. 1 It is worthy of a trial here. 

I. “ The company hereby give notice that they will not be 
responsible for articles left by passengers at the station unless 
the same be duly registered, for which a charge of four cents 
per article will be made and a ticket given in exchange. No 
article will be given up without the production of the ticket or 
satisfactory evidence of the ownership. A charge of two cents 
per day in addition will be made on all articles left in the 
cloak room for a longer period than three days; the day 
of deposit and day of removal each counting as one day. The 
company will not be responsible for any package exceeding 
the value of fifty dollars; and they will not be responsible for 
any amount unless the articles are taken away within twelve 
months from the day on which deposited. Depositors are not 
permitted to obtain possession of any portion of the contents 
of a package. The ticket must be surrendered before a 
package or article can be released, and if again deposited in 
the company's custody, an additional fee will be charged and 
another ticket issued .”—Regulations Loud , and Northwestern 
Ry., England. 

“Notice is hereby given that when parcels addressed ‘to 
be left till called for’ are not applied for and removed from 
the station to which they are booked, either on the day of 
receipt or on the day following, an extra charge of four cents 
per parcel will be made to the consignee ; in the case of 
parcels not applied for within the week, an additional charge 
of four cents per week will be made. For example: if a 


92 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE INTER-ROAD PASSENGER AND HIS BAG¬ 
GAGE— SOMETHING ABOUT COMMISSIONS. 

It has been the practice for many years in 
the United States for each railway company to 
place tickets on sale to the principal points on 
the lines connecting with it. These are called 
Coupon tickets from the fact that a coupon is 
attached for each one of the various lines over 
which the ticket is good. 

As a rule baggage is checked through 
between the various points to which passengers 
are ticketed. But this is not always the case. 

At the close of the month each company 

parcel is received at a station on a Monday, and is not called 
for until the next Wednesday, it is liable to a charge of four 
cents; if not called for until Thursday, to a charge of four 
cents extra, or eight cents, the second four cents being the 
warehouse rent up to the following Wednesday. Fractions of 
a week will be counted as a whole week. The maximum 
charge in these cases will be twenty-five cents per parcel.” 
— Ibid. 

“ Lost or unclaimed goods left in the carriages or on the 
premises of the company will be liable to be sold after the 
expiration of a year if not applied for and identified within 
that time .”—Regulations Midland Ry. of England. 

“ Bicycles and perambulators, when left in the care of the 
company, are charged sixteen cents each, with a charge of four 
cents per day in addition when left for a longer period than 
three days, the day of deposit and the day of removal each 
counting as one day.”— Ibid. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


93 


sends to the lines over which it has sold tickets 
a detailed statement of its coupon ticket sales. 

The expense of printing the tickets required 
to do the inter-road traffic, and the cost of 
accounting in connection therewith, is very 
great. Each company, nevertheless, bears its 
own burden, printing such tickets as it requires 
for sale over other lines ; hires the required 
agents to sell them, and finally pays for the 
accounting incident thereto. 

The cost of the through checks used in con¬ 
nection with the inter-road traffic is, however, 
as a rule, very properly divided between the 
lines over which the checks are used, upon 
such basis as may be agreed upon by the Bag¬ 
gage agents of the companies interested. 

After a company has furnished the tickets 
and paid all the expenses incident to the inter- 
road business furnished by it, it would naturally 
be supposed that here its expenses would end; 
that each company from which it received pas¬ 
sengers would, be required to furnish them with¬ 
out cost to it. Under ordinary circumstances 
such would be the case, but in connection with 
the inter-road passenger traffic there has grown 
up a practice of allowing the ticket seller a com¬ 
mission or gratuity on the sales made by him to 
many of the most important and lucrative 
points. 

The subject of paying commissions is there- 








94 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


fore an interesting one, and important in its 
effect upon the finances of our railway compa¬ 
nies. It involves expenses amounting in the 
aggregate to a great many thousands of dollars 
annually. 

These disbursements were made primarily 
to secure business. That is no longer the case. 
They are now made to insure neutrality. Neu¬ 
trality upon the part of whom ? The servants 
of Railway Companies. 

For the practice of paying commissions we 
are indebted to the superlative folly or treach¬ 
ery of the small coterie of railway officers already 
noticed. It is entirely owing to these same 
officers that the abuse is perpetuated. It 
requires no argument to demonstrate this. The 
fact is patent to every one familiar with the rail¬ 
way companies of the country. 

The commissions are in the nature of gra¬ 
tuities. They are not contemplated by rail¬ 
way companies in arranging the salaries of their 
ticket agents. A railway company in fixing 
the wages of its employes is governed by its 
ability to pay and by the value of the services 
rendered it. 

The acceptancy of the pay allotted by the 
company is an acknowledgement upon the part 
of the employes of its sufficiency. That the 
salaries paid are always moderate and sometimes 
inadequate for the responsibility and skill 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


95 


required is no doubt true, but the remedy does 
not lie in levying a tax upon innocent com¬ 
panies. The evil being purely local should 
receive local treatment. 

The question recurs, why are these commis¬ 
sions paid ? Is it for the performance of 
labor that the company employing the agent 
does not of itself exact, or, is it for services 
especially valuable in their nature ? Nothing 
of the kind. The commissions are paid because 
other companies pay them; Railways pay 
them because they fear employes would dis¬ 
criminate against them if they did not; they 
pay, not to induce agents to divert traffic from 
the line of a rival company, but’to induce the 
agents to remain passive, uninterested spec¬ 
tators of the volume and course of business. 

But railway companies do not allow agents 
to discriminate ! Not openly doubtless. Fur¬ 
ther than this they are powerless. The word 
left unspoken, the raised eyebrows, the shrug, 
the innuendo are quite as effective as blunt 
outspoken opposition. 

• The employes of an eastern line receive 
gratuities from a western company; the 
employes of a western company receive gratu¬ 
ities from an eastern line. The stockholders 
pay in either case. These gratuities add 
infinitely to the compensation of the agent, 
but as already shown they are so much in 



96 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


excess of the value of such agent’s services as 
fixed by the company employing him. 

It frequently happens that one company pays 
the employes of another company for the ser¬ 
vices they perform, while the first named com¬ 
pany and its employes are at the same time per¬ 
forming similar work for the latter company 
without any compensation whatever. The cus¬ 
tom is replete with absurdities of this character. 

The subordinate agent has of course nothing 
whatever to do with inaugurating the payment 
of commissions. He neither encourages or dis¬ 
courages it. His attitude is perfectly passive. 
It is only after the practice has been introduced 
that he makes his appearance. 

The recipients of these gratuities understand 
that the money they individually receive comes 
from a corporation in which they are in no wise 
interested. It is therefore not a matter of 
which they need take official cognizance. Their 
action being involuntary, no blame or reflection 
whatever can rest upon them. On the contrary, 
the integrity and uprightness of ticket and 
freight agents of our railway companies is 
deserving of the highest praise, as the writer 
has before had occasion to refer to them they 
“ are as trustworthy a body of men as can be 
found any where. They are, as a class, honest, 
industrious, and faithful men; men of great 
discretion and native sagacity, who, in their 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


97 


several ways, watch over the interests of their 
employers, and the safety and convenience of 
the public, with unwearying patience and 
assiduity.” 1 

THE CLASS OF MEN WHO HAVE FASTENED THE 
PRACTICE OF PAYING COMMISSIONS UPON THE 
RAILWAY COMPANIES. 

There is a small class of railway men con¬ 
nected with the passenger service who think 
they are rendering no adequate equivalent for 
their salaries uliless they are spending the 
money of the companies employing them. These 
zealous but weak and inefficient men are inces¬ 
santly upon the lookout to discover new ave¬ 
nues to success, new means of securing busi¬ 
ness. With each succeeding day they develop 
new bonanzas of wealth. As superficial as 
they are zealous, they perpetually menace every 
established custom. Their enterprise finds vent, 
in the most curious and unique ways. 

We ever live in anticipation of something from 
them that will relieve the dull monotony of 
common life. But it is unfortunate that the 
gratification of these eccentricities costs so much 
money and accomplishes so little good. 

One or two illustrations will demonstrate the 
peculiarities of the class we have referred to. 
Let us imagine a railway officer, greatly 

i. Railway Revenue, pp. 76, 77. 


7 




98 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


esteemed in* his circle for the energy of his 
character and the originality of his research. 
This officer is dissatisfied; his road is not suf¬ 
ficiently advertised; a brilliant and original 
idea occurs to him ; he determines to issue gra¬ 
tuitously a valuable and convenient form of 
pocket-book ; he adapts it to general use, and, 
crafty man, upon its first page he spreads a 
flaming advertisement of his company. No 
other company has ever thought of this plan 
of advertising. The company first adopting it 
must surely reap a rich harvest of business. 
Vain thought! Immediately every road in the 
country issues myriads of gilt-edged, Turkish 
morocco pocket books, elegantly arranged and 
in every way more desirable than those origi¬ 
nally issued. A dispassionate observer might 
be pardoned, perhaps, for believing that these 
unexpected results would have a tendency to 
momentarily depress the zealous official we 
have described. He mistakes the character of 
the man. The venture resulted disastrously 
from a financial point of view, no doubt; it is 
nevertheless viewed as a personal triumph by 
the official over less enterprising competitors. 
And well he may. His standing as an ener¬ 
getic and sagacious officer has been established 
upon a firm, enduring basis. 

Another officer, more practical in his methods 
than the one we have just described, determines 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


99 


to pay a limited number of agents, in a certain 
section, a small commission. To make it effect¬ 
ive he proposes to do it with the utmost 
secrecy. The subject is discussed in whispers 
with bolted doors and sealed windows. This 
sagacious official possesses sufficient intelligence 
to be able to understand that all knowledge of 
the payment of these gratuities must be kept 
from competitive lines, otherwise their efficiency 
is lost. In distributing the gratuities the 
utmost stealth is observed ; every body is sworn 
to secrecy, or left in seeming ignorance. The 
little installments are carelessly placed in the 
drawers of agents, between the leaves of books, 
or perhaps rudely stuffed into the pocket of an 
overcoat hanging on the wall. A nod, a 
chuckle, and the visitor is gone. Nothing 
that could insure secrecy has apparently been 
overlooked. Yes, one thing. The recipients of 
these gratuities are practical men. It is appar¬ 
ent to them that the sooner other companies be¬ 
come acquainted with the fact that commissions 
are allowed, the sooner such companies will add 
their contributions to those already paid. No 
time is consequently lost in conveying intelli¬ 
gence to the companies interested. What is 
the result ? The aggrieved lines at once per¬ 
fect arrangements to follow in the footsteps of 
their competitor, but lest they should have lost 
any prestige in consequence of the acts of such 









100 


Boggage Car Traffic . 


competitor , they enlarge the field and increase the 
number of agents to whom commissions are 
allowed. And thus, while the original offender 
has not been able to extend or increase the 
business of his company, he has placed it in a 
position where it is compelled to pay for a 
traffic that did not before cost it a cent. 

The effect of the practice is more sweeping 
than would be supposed. The payment of com¬ 
missions by one obscure line entails a like 
expense upon other lines located hundreds of 
miles away, and having no interest in common 
with it. This seems hardly probable, but it is 
nevertheless true. We will suppose that a 
southern line pays commissions on all ticket 
sales to Leavenworth. The immediate northern 
neighbor of such line must do the same ; and so 
the process goes on repeating itself until every 
line that reaches Leavenworth, or connects with 
any line reaching that point, is subjected to the 
expense. This is not the full extent of the 
evil. The poison has only commenced to 
diffuse itself through the system. Many lines 
having no interest whatever in the Leavenworth 
business, are nevertheless in active competition 
at other points with the lines that are interested 
in such traffic. They find that whenever they 
come in active competition with the Leaven¬ 
worth lines, their interests are not fairly consid¬ 
ered by those agents who are receiving commis- 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


101 


sions on account of the Leavenworth business. 
In other words, the payment of the com¬ 
mission on the Leavenworth business influences 
the agent receiving it, and his friends as well, to 
throw as much competitive business as possible 
over the line allowing the commission. To put 
it in still another light, the agent will always 
favor the company in whose pay he indirectly 
is, when such company comes in competition 
with a non-paying company. This fact com¬ 
pels the latter line to allow commissions on all 
business destined to points at which it comes in 
competition with the Leavenworth line, and so 
the evil spreads until commissions are paid to 
eveiy competitive point. 

THE ABOLITION OF THE PRACTICE. 

The number who believe in the perpetuation 
of the custom are infinitesimal, but so long as 
one compan}^ pays, all must pay. 

How can the practice be at once and forever 
broken up ? It can be broken up by the mana¬ 
gers of the various roads acting in concert. It 
can be abolished by the railway companies 
refusing to enter into any arrangements affect¬ 
ing either the passenger or freight business with 
those lines that still persist in the custom. A 
refusal to sell tickets over the offending com¬ 
pany’s line, or participate in any joint business 
with it, would soon effect a radical cure of the 
evil. 


102 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


The practice of paying commissions alternates 
between bustling activity and comparative 
quietude. It fluctuates rapidly from one 
extreme to another ; animated to-day, it will be 
stagnant to-morrow. 

A few years ago the payment of commissions 
was abolished with a few exceptions throughout 
the country. These exceptions have materially 
assisted, it is believed, to bring the custom into 
favor again. To effect a complete cure, the 
evil must be dug up root and branch, no germ 
remaining. There will be no general opposition 
to such a course. 

Of the five hundred General Passenger and 
Ticket Agents, there are probably not over one 
per cent, who do not heartily desire to see the 
abolition of the practice of paying commissions 
as it has been conducted. 1 

i. Mr. A. V. H. Carpenter, a railway officer, in a paper read 
before the Association of General Ticket and Passenger Agents, 
at Saratoga, September 17th, 1875, says: 

“ The commission business, as it has been done in times past, 
is an unmitigated fraud upon the innocents, for which both par¬ 
ties to the transaction are at fault. The ticket seller, by allow¬ 
ing his greed to demand, or his simplicity to accept, more than 
a reasonable amount for the service ; and the general ticket 
or passenger agent who yields to exorbitant demands in this 
direction, or throws away the money of his constituents in 
tempting men to that which their better judgment condemns— 
to gain a little temporary advantage—reaps the reward of other 
spendthrifts in the end. It is in the abuses, not in the system 
itself, that the grounds for its condemnation are found, and 
therein arises the grief among the participants, when the mis¬ 
used bounty is cut short by the outraged constituents. Wherein 
this matter affects the question of rates vitally, is the practice 
among the sharp ones of using a portion of their exorbitant 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


103 


The general passenger and ticket agents, 
while proverbially liberal with their private 
means, using it in their official intercourse and 
elsewhere in profuse and generous hospitality, 
are in no respect less sagacious or circumspect 
in their acts as officers than other railway rep¬ 
resentatives. But the commission problem is a 
particularly vexatious one. While the officers 
are individually sincere in desiring its abolition, 
they have a natural distrust of the effect of 
initiatory action. They fear the loss of popu¬ 
larity with local ticket agents and others, and 
they are consequently powerless to act effect¬ 
ively. The disreputable element is neither 
respectable in numbers or ability, but it is 
sufficiently large to act as a disturbing force, 

commissions in subsidizing people to patronize them by shar¬ 
ing a portion of their commisions with them.” 

Referring to an analogous case, the giving of special rates, 
Samuel Powell, Esq., Secretary of the General Ticket and Pas¬ 
senger Agents’ Association, in his able and thoughtful address 
before that body at Cincinnati, March 19th, 1875, says: 

“ I will assume at the outset, that by the abolition of all unfair 
means, for the procurement of competitive business, we shall 
be striking at the root of the ruinous competition, that has 
been indulged in to a greater or less extent, all over the coun¬ 
try; that, for the sake of a few passengers or a few dollars tem¬ 
porarily gained, the passenger business has been sadly demor¬ 
alized, and the net results, from competitive business, reduced 
to a very low percentage as compared with the cost of doing the 
same. * * * * * Is it not better to elevate the standard 

of railroad morality, and initiate a day of better things, than to 
go on in the present way of depressing it, and trailing it in the 
dust ? It is too true, that it bears the marks of many a daub 
and smear, but the time is not yet passed in which it may be 
made clean and beautiful, clear from the suspicion even, of 
being else than it appears, the very epitome of honor and 
integrity.” 


104 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


and it is so incurably vicious in temper and 
malignant in its methods that the most sturdy 
passenger official hesitates to grapple with it, 
lest his action should be used to the detriment 
of himself and his company. 

EFFECT OF COMPETITION ON BAGGAGE CAR 

TRAFFIC. 

The strife that induces a company to pay 
commissions in order to prevent the diversion 
of its business, affects the traffic of a road in 
many ways. The legitimate receipts of the 
baggage department, in common with other 
branches of the service, suffers by it. One 
company, in order to gain a fancied advantage, 
not only allows commercial travelers a reduced 
rate, but transports their merchandise samples 
without charge. Competing lines are forced to 
do likewise, and thus considerable revenue is 
lost without any company being materially 
benefited by it. Where competition is active 
it is not an uncommon thing for agents to 
tacitly ignore the rules and regulations govern¬ 
ing the traffic of the baggage department, 
passing without charge every species of luggage 
or parcel that is offered. 

COMMISSIONS BRING NO INCREASED BUSINESS. 

All this waste brings no increased business 
to any particular line when it is indulged in, 



Baggage Car Traffic. 105 

as it must be, impartially by all the companies 
interested. 

What are the secret thoughts of the trav¬ 
eling public, of a body of men who so unneces¬ 
sarily and foolishly squander the revenue they 
are hired to protect? 

The evils complained of should be reformed. 
The common law of honesty demands that they 
should be; the rights of stockholders demand 
it; the law that tacitly compels a man to 
return some equivalent for the salary he draws 
demands it; ' a decent regard for the good 
opinion of dispassionate men demands it; and 
finally, and more important than all, the law of 
self-preservation demands it. 



106 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


CHAPTER X. 

EXCESS BAGGAGE CUSTOMS HERE AND ABROAD. 

The maximum quantity of baggage a passen¬ 
ger may transport without charge being fixed 
by law or the custom of the country, provision 
must be made for those cases where there is 
an excess over the stipulated amount. In 
Great Britain the machinery for conducting 
the express or parcel traffic (in many respects 
similar to the baggage car traffic here) has 
been brought into requisition to meet the wants 
of extra baggage and similar business. In 
Europe more than in England the deliberation 
and the scrupulous precision that has always 
characterized commercial life is observable in 
the management of railroads, and passengers 
are compelled in all their calculations to take 
cognizance of the fact that the railroad com¬ 
pany exacts in all cases a certain respect for its 
rights. The traveler, consequently, is particular 
to reach the depot in time to have his baggage 
weighed and billed, nor does he forget to allow 
a reasonable length of time for making the 
necessary payments in the event he has any 
extra baggage. In the United States a different 
picture meets the eye. Here many of the 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


107 


necessary and proper regulations of railway 
companies in connection with the passenger 
traffic are looked upon as infringements of the 
personal rights of citizens. Instead of calmly 
acquiescing in the inconvenience that an equit¬ 
able conduct of the business entails, we find the 
passenger is oftentimes impatient, arrogant, and 
exacting. This disposition is heightened and 
intensified by the obsequious and timid policy 
of many of our railway officers who fear to 
claim the just rights and prerogatives of their 
companies, lest the public be offended. For 
these and many other reasons, great difficulty 
has been experienced upon most, if not all, of 
our railroads, in securing a thorough and 
effective organization of the business and ac¬ 
counting connected with the transportation of 
extra baggage, goods parcels, articles of mer¬ 
chandise, and other items of traffic carried in 
the baggage cars of passenger trains. 

NEGLECT OF THE SUBJECT BY RESPONSIBLE 
AND DIRECTING OFFICIALS. 

The fact that our express business has not 
been conducted directl} r by the railroads has 
greatly lessened the incentive to provide or 
enforce adequate machinery for definitely ascer¬ 
taining and collecting the charges upon excess 
baggage and similar business. The baggage 
car traffic is relatively small and its wants have 


108 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


not been fully regarded. That is to say, the 
other branches of railway service are, compared 
with the transportation of extra baggage and 
goods parcels, of so much greater importance, 
that the responsible and directing officials of 
many of our roads have been able to give the 
matter comparatively little attention. In other 
words, the duty of watching the business and 
providing for its wants has been left to the 
discretion of subordinates. A general-in-chief 
may attend generally to the direction and 
organization of his army, may indeed examine 
minutely into many details, but he can not 
personally drill the various squadrons of which 
his army is composed. And so it is with the 
railway manager. He exercises a wise and 
healthful supervision over the property, but he 
can not personally examine into the details of 
the various departments, especially those of a 
minor character. 

OBSTACLES IN THE WAY. 

An examination of the subject discovers 
obstacles not met with in any other branch of 
railway business: some of these obstacles are 
inherent, others again are the outgrowth of 
prejudice and lax administration. 

In the absence of any baggage it is sometimes 
claimed, and tacitly admitted, that the passen¬ 
ger is entitled to transport goods parcels or 


Baggage Car Traffic. 109 

merchandise packages equal in amount to the 
stipulated one hundred pounds of wearing 
apparel. This absurd claim does not require 
serious answer. The passenger is entitled under 
our customs to one hundred pounds of personal 
baggage, not to fifty or one hundred pounds of 
sugar or butter. The claim is especially absurd 
when put forward, as it frequently is, by the 
suburban population of our large towns. The 
rate at which this class of the community is 
carried by the railroads is, as a rule, barely 
sufficient to meet the ordinary cost of operat¬ 
ing. Yet upon many of the prominent roads 
of the country the bulk of the provisions con¬ 
sumed by the suburban population, and much 
of the furniture and bric-a-brac that adorn 
their homes, is carried free in the baggage 
cars. This is done, presumably, as a matter of 
policy, or of good-nature, or the fact that it is 
done is not known: nevertheless, the roads are 
clearly entitled to a reasonable revenue from 
this source whenever the}^ choose to enforce it. 

INEQUALITIES THAT EXIST. 

There is, of course, great diversity in refer¬ 
ence to the quantity of luggage transported for 
passengers in different states and sections. 
Upon the frontier the quantity of baggage 
possessed by the holders of first class tickets is 
meager in the extreme. It is usually carried 




110 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


into the cars and deposited under the seats, or 
finds a resting place in the rack overhead. In 
the older portions of the country there is greater 
circumstance, more variety. The oil-cloth 
carpet-bag disappears, and in its place we 
become familiar with mammoth Saratogas and 
tranks of lesser magnitude down to the dimin¬ 
utive hat-box. All over the land the weight 
and solidity of the trunks that encumber the 
depot platforms, and fill the luggage vans upon 
our railroads, indicate the wealth and refine¬ 
ment of the community. 

THE LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. 

It is evident that any indulgence that may be 
granted to a particular passenger or class of 
passengers, by the free transportation of baggage 
in excess of the stipulated amount, is done at 
the expense of the community at large, or at 
the expense of the other patrons of railroads. 

Every dollar of revenue that is lost in a 
particular department or branch of railway 
service must be made good by some other 
department or through some other channel. 

The law of supply and demand applies as 
definitely and distinctly to a railway as it does 
to the manufacture of cloth or any other branch 
of business. 

The impoverishment of our railroads means 


Baggage Cay • Traffic. Ill 

loss of credit and the destruction of values 
generally. 

We frequently find railroads doing a losing 
business, but the loss ultimately comes out of 
the pockets of the community, and the suffering 
of the public is, in the aggregate, quite as 
great, if not individually so, as that of the stock 
or bondholder. Sooner or later the company 
recoups at the expense of the community. 
This is right wherever the losses occur through 
indulgences, enforced or voluntary, granted the 
latter. However, it is not important to our 
subject to pursue this phase of it here. 

Many companies attach so little importance to 
the traffic carried on through the medium of the 
baggage cars that an effort is rarely if ever 
made by them to ascertain whether the amount 
of baggage offered by a passenger exceeds the 
limit specified or not. At a few principal points 
a weak and inconsequential effort is, perhaps, 
made to collect the revenue from baggage traf¬ 
fic, but at the great majority of stations little, 
if any, attention whatever is given the subject. 
This indifference or neglect is attributable to a 
variety of causes, but it is so contrary to the 
spirit animating the management of railroads 
abroad that it deserves more than passing 
attention at our hands. It is not creditable to 
our railway management that any legitimate 
and proper source of revenue should be over¬ 
looked or neglected. 


112 


Baggage Car Traffic. 

RAILWAY PROPERTY ENTITLED TO A FAIR 

DIVIDEND. 

Very few of the railway companies of the 
United States will ever be able to earn a fair 
dividend from the commencement upon the 
original cost. Other property of a similar char¬ 
acter is not only expected to pay a fair rate of 
interest from the start, but a natural and legiti¬ 
mate increase in the valuation of the invest¬ 
ment is anticipated as the country becomes 
more wealthy or more populous; this increase 
is added to the first costand interest is expected 
and exacted on the aggregate. When this very 
proper and universal practice is pursued with 
railway property it is called watering or debas¬ 
ing the Stock. This absurd libel passes cur¬ 
rent all over the country, and is repeated 
year after year without contradiction. None of 
our roads pay more than a fair rate of interest 
on the capital invested; a large number can 
only pay interest on a part of the cost; the 
appalling number of wrecked and bankrupted 
enterprises that encumber the records of our 
courts, abundantly attest the fact that the 
business of the country through which they 
pass is either deficient in volume or productive¬ 
ness to sustain the legitimate expenses of a 
railway. It thus becomes doubly important 
that every species of income incident to the 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


113 


working of a railroad should be faithfully gar¬ 
nered by it. In this connection, a glance at the 
minute provision made by prominent foreign 
railway companies, for collecting their dues, is 
both interesting and instructive. Their regula¬ 
tions make it apparent that nothing is thought 
too small or too unimportant to merit the 
thoughtful attention of the managers of the 
property. 


EXTRA BAGGAGE RATES. 

“ Ordinary Pas- “ Commercial 
senger and Mer- Travelers 
“ DISTANCES.” chant Seaman’s Luggage, 

Luggage, per lb.” per lb.” 


“Not exceeding 30 miles. _ 


yic . 

X c 

Above 30 and not exceedin 

g 50 miles _ 

1 _ 

X 

“ 50 

it 

100 “ .... 

i'A .... 

x X- 

“ 100 “ 

ll 

150 “ ---- 

2 _ 

I 

“ 150* “ 

(t 

200 “ _ 

1 

1 

1 

<N 

x X' 

“ 200 “ 

U 

250 “ - 

3 ---- 

x X 

“ 250 “ 

< i 

300 “ .... 

3 X ---- 

T X. 

“ 300 “ 

a 

400 “ .... 

4 ---- 

2 

“ 400 “ 

U 

500 “ - 

4 - 

2 

“ 500 “ 

a 

600 “ _ 

4 X ---- 

2X 

Above 600 miles _ 



5 - 



“ Passengers’ Heavy Luggage when conveyed on carriage 
trucks by passenger trains, is charged 12 cents per mile per 
truck (station to station). No greater weight than 50 cwt. to 
be carried on any one truck. Minimum charge, $2.50. 

“Family Luggage.—Arrangements have been made in Lon¬ 
don and all the large towns for carting to the stations, at low 
rates, the luggage of families traveling by the Midland Rail¬ 
way, and also for forwarding such luggage by passenger train 
in advance. The charge for conveyance by passenger train 
is at the rate of 12 cents per mile for any weight up to 50 
cwt., with a minimum charge of $2.50, and exclusive of a 
reasonable charge for collection and delivery. 

“ Bath Chairs, Velocipedes, Bicycles, Hawkers’ Hand Carts 
and Ice Cream Carts are charged at the following rates when 
conveyed as passengers’ luggage : 

8 










/ 




114 Baggage Car Traffic. 


“ Not exceeding 12 miles.$ 25 

“Above 12 miles and not exceeding 25 miles— 37 


44 

25 

44 

“ 50 

44 

- . . 

50 

<< 

50 

4 4 

“ 75 

44 

— 

75 

4 4 

75 “ 

4 4 

“ 100 

4 i 

_I 

00 

44 

100 “ 

4 4 

“ 150 

4 4 

_I 

25 

4 4 

150 

44 

“ 200 

4 4 

_ I 

50 

44 

200 “ 

44 

“ 250 

44 

_I 

75 


“ For each additional 50 miles or portion thereof 25 
“ Bath chairs, velocipedes, bicycles, hawkers’ hand carts, 
and ice cream carts, are carried at sender’s risk in all cases. 

“ When sent as parcels, the charge is double the above rates. 
Velocipedes, bicycles, hawkers’ hand carts and ice cream carts, 
requiring a carriage truck for their conveyance, are to be 
charged as for a two wheeled carriage. 

“ Perambulators are charged half the above rates for bath 
chairs, etc. When sent as parcels the charge is'double.” 1 2 
“ Bath chairs, when accompanied by passengers, are charged 


as follows : 

“ Not exceeding 12 miles.$ 25 

“Above 12 miles and not exceeding 25 miles 37 
“ 25 ‘ “ “ 50 “ 50 

“ 50 “ “ “ 75 “ 75 

“ 715 “ “ “ 100 “ .. 1 00 


“ For each additional 50 miles or portion thereof 25 

“ When sent as parcels double the above rates are charged. 

“ Perambulators are charged half the above rates for bath 
chairs. Velocipedes, when conveyed in the guard’s van, are 
charged same as bath chairs, and bicycles as perambulators. 
When so large as to require a carriage truck, the ordinary 
carriage rates are charged. These rates are at owner’s risk. 
Furniture vans will not be carried by passenger trains. 

“ Small boats and canoes, conveyed on the roofs of car¬ 
riages or in the guards’ vans, will be charged as follows : 

Small canoes, to be charged 2c. per mile each, mini¬ 
mum charge__ _$ 62 

Sculling boats, to be charged 2c. per mile each, mini¬ 
mum charge. ... 62 

Pair oared boats, to be charged 2c. per mile each, 

minimum charge... 70 

Four oared boats, to be charged 4c. per mile each, 

minimum charge... I 00 

Eight oared boats, to be charged 6c. per mile each, 

minimum charge.... 1 25 ”2 

1. Midland Ry. of England, January 31,1878. 

2. London and Northwestern Railway Company, Dec. 1876. 
















Baggage Car Traffic. 


115 


In the U nited States the charge on the extra baggage of inter¬ 
road passengers is generally fixed at fifteen per cent, per one 
hundred pounds of the rate for first class passengers. 

The rate made by railroad companies in this country on 
excess local baggage varies widely upon different lines. The 
rate for short distances is pei'haps greater than in England, 
while the charge for long distances is relatively much less; 
thus upon a prominent line, in one of the Northern States the 
rate for excess baggage, for twenty five miles or less, is one 
cent per pound for any quantity, while the rate for six hundred 
miles is 3 6-10 cents per pound for twenty-five pounds or less, 
and 3*4 cents per pound for ninety pounds or more. 

It is customary, upon many lines, to make special rates for 
the parcels of commercial agents, theatrical companies, cara¬ 
vans, showmen, etc., etc. 


THE GENERAL BAGGAGE AGENT. 

Comparatively little is known in the United 
States of the details of the baggage business 
save by a few minor officials whose duties are 
connected wholly with the luggage department. 
The sagacity of these officers is unexcelled in 
the difficult duty of providing the machinery 
necessary to insure the rapid transit and effi¬ 
cient care of the baggage of passengers. To 
the discharge of these duties they bring great 
native shrewdness and all the varied accom¬ 
plishments of the expert. 

Their skill and precision is so great that 
baggage checked through, under rules formu¬ 
lated by them, to the most remote points 
accessible by railroad, may be said, practically, 
always to reach its destination simultaneously 
with the passenger. This is really a very great 



116 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


achievement when we recall the great number 
of persons through whose hands the baggage 
must pass, and that it not unfrequently travels 
by a circuitous and comparatively obscure 
route, requiring frequent changes of cars en 
route. 

The acumen of our general baggage agents 
in tracing lost baggage, and in fixing the 
responsibility for damaged property, is marvel¬ 
ous ; this skill possesses a positive money 
value to each company that is almost impos¬ 
sible to estimate, for the reason that through it 
the railroad is relieved from many large bills of 
cost for fraudulent and unjust claims for 
reported losses. 

While the officials prominently connected 
with the baggage department understand all 
the material wants of their profession (the 
knowledge required in each department of a 
railroad entitles it to be called a profession), 
they do not, with rare exceptions, understand 
the subtleties of accounts or the necessity of 
checks and safeguards, so that while they have 
developed the highest efficiency in every branch 
of the service properly within the province of 
their duties, it is, perhaps, not too much to say 
that in this particular field neither prudence 
nor good management has, as a rule, been dis¬ 
cernible. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


117 


THE DIFFICULTY OF ENFORCING CHARGES FOR 

EXTRA BAGGAGE — INTIMIDATION OF OFFI¬ 
CIALS. 

Another important reason why a systematic 
effort has not been made in this country to 
secure and enforce the machinery necessary to 
gather in all the revenue the company is justly 
entitled to from this source, is the contuma¬ 
ciousness of passengers when called upon to pay 
for the transportation of any extra baggage 
they may have. 

It is contrary to common belief, but it is 
nevertheless true, that our railway official, as 
we know him, stands in great fear of the public ; 
he looks upon himself as their servant; he 
shrinks from any act that runs counter to 
accepted practices; he deplores strife ; above 
all he seeks to popularize his company with the 
masses. 

He understands that the complaints of the 
public, whether just-or otherwise, destroy to a 
certain extent his availability as an officer. He 
has to contemplate the possibility that his 
enemies and rivals will seize upon his embar¬ 
rassments to harass and destroy him. He is 

«/ 

aware that, in the end, the management or 
proprietors will very likely forget that he is 
acting conscientiously in their behalf. It is 
impossible for him not to remember that it is 







118 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


probable that complaints, constantly reiterated, 
will ultimately force his dismissal, no matter 
how unjust or impolitic such a course may be 
upon the part of the company. 

The consciousness that this is so intimidates 
many otherwise strong railway officials, and 
destroys, practically, the usefulness of many 
more. Ambition, the love of life, the sense of 
self-preservation, the warmth of a comfortable 
place, the glamour of office, are stronger with 
them than a sense of duty. 

THE POPULAR OFFICER. 

Every intelligent and well-disposed officer 
desires to be popular with the public. The 
interests of his company require that he should 
be. To secure this coveted distinction he is at 
all times and in all places attentive and cour¬ 
teous in his manner; he exhibits a manifest 
desire to please, and in all other proper ways 
seeks to win the regard of those with whom he 
is brought in contact. In this strife some will 
be more successful than others, just as nature 
deals lavishly with one man and niggardly with 
his neighbor. The easy superficial graces that 
some men possess, that charm and captivate 
the world, others, with more talent and greater 
kindliness of heart, do not possess and can not 
counterfeit. All such are unfortunate. 

There is another species of popularity more 




Baggage Car' Traffic. 


119 


eagerly sought after than that we have men¬ 
tioned. It has a more selfish object. We every¬ 
where discover an intense burning desire upon 
the part of railway officials to be popular with 
their superior officers. Under all proper circum¬ 
stances this feeling is not only right in itself, but 
highly commendable and in every way desirable. » 
It should, however, be confined within the 
limit of conscientious loyalty to the interests of 
the proprietors; when these interests are 
jeopardized, official subserviency is no longer 
commendable. This distinction is not always 
made, and in consequence grave interests suffer 
habitual neglect, and the supervision that should 
be vigilant and conscientious in all matters 
affecting the integrity of the trust, is openly 
neglectful or complaisantly sleeps in a corner. 

It is not perhaps too strong to sa}^ that it is 
nothing in favor of an officer that he is popular 
with his superiors, his associates, or his subor¬ 
dinates. His duties rightly administered are 
not such as to make him popular. The popular 
officer, so called, is too often a miserable coward, 
twisting and squirming around every obstacle 
that can not be approached without comprom¬ 
ising him with somebody. The interests of a 
railroad company suffer as much from the weak 
and injudicious acts of such an officer as they 
do from a dishonest one. Such an officer is a 
time-server and a toady, and nothing is so 



120 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


repulsive to him as to be even temporarily in 
disgrace. Like all time-servers, lie lives only 
in the sunlight of official favor. The proprie¬ 
tors rarely if ever discover the true character of 
these parasites ; they are, however, well known 
among their associates. That there are popular 
officers who do not possess the characteristics 
we have mentioned is undoubtedly true. All 
such may, however, be classed under the head 
of exceptions. 

.RELUCTANCE TO PAY FOR EXCESS BAGGAGE. 

As we have already stated, the collection of 
charges on excess baggage and goods parcels 
is peculiarly difficult. All classes, from the 
sturdy farmer to the dapper merchant, adjust 
their freight accounts or pay for their passage 
tickets without question or hesitation, but 
with rare and praiseworthy exceptions, they one 
and all discover objections when their right to 
carry free all the baggage their convenience or 
profit suggests is called in question. This 
tribute, this odious tax levied upon their wear¬ 
ing apparel, their sacred household gods, they 
cordially unite in resenting as an outrage. 

This opposition, which we look for in vain 
in every other branch of business, is of course 
largely if not wholly based upon prejudice. It 
undoubtedly arises in part from the long- 
continued neglect of the railroad companies to 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


121 


enforce their just, proper and reasonable rights 
in this particular field. There is, of course, no 
reason whatever why a passenger should ask a 
railroad company to carry free more than the 
stipulated amount of baggage. He might, with 
equal propriety, ask that a certain portion of his 
grain, or live stock, or fuel should be carried free 
in consideration of his buying and using a first 
class ticket. Admit his right, even tacitly, and 
there ceases to be a limit or check upon the 
business. Its abuse or non-abuse is purely a 
matter of taste upon the part of the passenger. 
A portion of the community will respect the 
rights of the railroad company, the other por¬ 
tion of the community, however, will look upon 
the evasion of these rights as indicating special 
and commendable shrewdness. 

Still other things conspire to render a full 
collection of the revenue that ought to accrue 
from extra baggage exceedingly difficult. 

THE HARASSED AND PERPLEXED AGENT. 

As a rule, the baggage car traffic (it may 
all be classed under that head for the want of 
a better designation) does not reach the depot 
until the train is just upon the point of starting. 
The passenger, who accompanies the articles to 
be shipped, can not wait until the succeeding 
trains. The train can not be held ; the agent is 
busy looking after the general wants of his 


122 Baggage Car Traffic. 

station, the ticketing of passengers, the check¬ 
ing of baggage, etc. With all these duties 
inviting his attention, he is constantly harassed 
with questions concerning the coming train and 
the destiny of its passengers. Let us try and 
recapitulate some of the anxious inquiries that 
beset him. 

He is asked many times by waiting passen¬ 
gers, what time it is. This inquiry he finds 
especially exasperating, as the station clock 
ticks loudly in its conspicuous place in the 
waiting room. However, he answers the ques¬ 
tion politely, and the passenger will then desire 
to know if he, the agent, is quite certain the 
train is on time, and if so, the precise minute 
it may be expected to arrive. He also desires 
information as to how long the train will remain 
at the station, and from which track it will 
depart. Satisfactory replies having been 
received to these important questions lie desires 
to know if the train will stop at a particular 
station, the name of wliich, very likely, escapes 
him for a few minutes; remembering it, how¬ 
ever, after considerable cogitation, he desires 
to know what time it will arrive at that partic¬ 
ular place. At this period he will hesitate, but 
discovering a look of slavish imbecility upon 
the face of the agent, he will be encouraged to 
proceed further in his inquiries in reference to 
the town he proposes visiting; he would be 



Baggage Car Traffic. 


123 


glad to know the distance to such a place; its 
population, its age, the character it possesses 
for enterprise, its hotel accommodations, and 
the facility it affords for getting into the coun¬ 
try. The passenger will also desire information 
as to the policy of taking a common or palace 
car. What does the latter cost ? Are the 
former cars comfortable, or are they kept inten¬ 
tionally in a disreputable condition for the 
purpose of driving people into the more expen¬ 
sive cars ? Meanwhile will the agent kindly 
take charge of his hat box, umbrella, and carpet 
bag until the arrival of the expected train ? 

Questions such as we have recounted occur 
naturally to all of us as we gaze through the 
ticket window upon the benignant agent. An 
inexperienced traveler will, however, discover 
many additional things that it is important he 
should know before proceeding on his way. 

THE IRATE PATRON. 

When the agent or baggageman (if the sta¬ 
tion is of sufficient size to warrant the employ¬ 
ment of a baggageman) finally reaches the 
extra baggage sought to be shipped, the passen¬ 
ger, unless a commercial agent or a veteran 
traveler, usually protests against the injustice 
of the company in compelling him to pay. 
Great animation, as a rule, characterizes these 
protestations, and in making them, no account 


124 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


is taken of time or place. Not unfrequently 
the passenger becomes greatly enraged, damn¬ 
ing the company and its agents in choicest 
Saxon; or taking a more politic turn, he per¬ 
haps seeks to bribe or cajole the impassive 
agent; he recites, in honeyed phrase, the 
friendly feeling lie has always had for this 
particular company, the large amount of money 
he has paid it, and the influence he has never 
failed to exert successfully in its behalf. Intox¬ 
icated with-his theme, he descends to particu¬ 
lars ; he recites instances where he has 
patronized this company when a competing 
route offered superior inducements, a shorter 
line and better accommodations. All the bland¬ 
ishments of the common enemy he has stead¬ 
fastly and scornfully spurned, and -now the 
company lie has so long befriended compels 
him to pay for a paltry bit of baggage, the 
transportation of which adds not a cent to the 
expenses of the road! 

We are reciting, with trifling exaggeration, 
perhaps, the opposition of a single passenger. 
The tact displayed in evading any charge for 
excess baggage is as varied as are the phases of 
human character. 

The agent listens as courteously and atten¬ 
tively to the objections of each passenger as his 
duties will permit, but the effect is of course 
to harass and delay him, so that he is very 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


125 


likely able to examine but a portion of the 
baggage that is presented to be checked, or his 
examination is hurried and incomplete. Many 
packages are thus overlooked that ought in 
justice to pay revenue to the company. 

The difficulties we have mentioned in organ¬ 
izing the business upon an effective basis has, 
in many cases, tended somewhat to destroy the 
esprit du corps of those particularly in charge of 
the baggage department, and the result is that 
the income that ought to be derived from the 
extra baggage traffic is lightly esteemed or 
wholly disregarded, or it is held subordinate to 
the imaginary needs of the passenger and 
freight departments. 

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE TIME ALLOWED FOE 

ACCOUNTING ONE CAUSE OF THE DEMOR¬ 
ALIZATION. 

* It has been the practice, with isolated 
exceptions, to require all baggage car traffic to 
be prepaid. 

Much of the demoralization that exists in 
connection with the business is attributable to 
this fact. 

An examination of the practical workings of 
the system, extending over many years, demon¬ 
strates its impracticability. 

The trouble is that sufficient time is not 
allowed the forwarding agent, in the majority 


126 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


of cases, to weigh the baggage, regularly bill it, 
and collect the charges before the departure of 
trains. 

In consequence, the effort is abandoned or 
pursued irregularly, the baggage being per¬ 
mitted, in many cases, to go forward without 
any charge whatever. 

This is a matter of daily and hourly occur¬ 
rence, and it can not be otherwise under any 
system that makes the prepayment of charges 
obligatory. 

To attempt to hurry an official in the per¬ 
formance of a duty that is at all discretionary 
with him is to cause him in many cases to neglect 
it altogether, and any system of business or 
accounting devised for a large corporation that 
does not make adequate provision for this 
peculiarity of human nature is insufficient and 
worthless. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


127 


CHAPTER XI. 

THROUGH EMIGRANT BUSINESS. 

The conduct of the emigrant business affords 
one of the most interesting and instructive 
phases of railway traffic as carried on by 
us. A few of the seaboard companies pos¬ 
sess practically a monopoty of the business; 
the emigrant finds his way into the interior over 
their lines ; they in a manner control him. 
This control, real or imaginary, nets them a 
handsome revenue. All the interior or con¬ 
necting lines over which the emigrant travels 
are taxed twenty-five per cent, of the earn¬ 
ings they derive, or should derive, from him; 
i. e ., when their tariff prescribes one dollar for 
carrying an emigrant they only get seventy-five 
cents. In other words, they release just one- 
quarter of their revenue from this business. 
This twenty-five per cent, may be called a com¬ 
mission allowed the seaboard lines for their 
exertions in the procurement of emigrants. 

The emigrant is peculiar. No other class of 
people carries so great a quantity of luggage. ' 
He has with him all his worldly effects. The 
train that carries him to his new home must 
also carry his goods. He pays enormously, of 


/ 




128 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


necessity, for this great luxury. What is done 
by the seaboard lines with the revenue from 
this business ? Do they apportion it amongst 
the connecting lines upon the basis of emi¬ 
grant passenger rates ? Formerly they did not, 
and it is too early to say definitely what they 
Avill do under the new arrangement. While 
they were satisfied with a uniform allotment of 
twenty-five per cent, of the earnings of interior 
lines from emigrants, the} r exacted, in some 
instances, the gross amount collected for the 
transportation of the emigrants’ baggage. Just 
what amount they received it was not always 
possible to tell. 

The manner of accounting for the charges 
collected for the transportation of extra bag¬ 
gage belonging to emigrants ticketed through 
over various connecting lines has always been 
exceedingly rude, incomplete, and ill-digested. 

The seaboard line not only tickets the emi¬ 
grants to their destination, but it also checks 
the luggage of the emigrants through. 

Two or at most three seaboard lines possess 
practically a monopoly of the business. 

As a rule, no distinguishing mark has been 
put upon the baggage to enable the different 
lines interested to distinguish the common from 
the extra baggage—to distinguish that which 
pays from that which does not pay. 

It has been the custom in some cases to enter 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


129 


on tlie passage ticket of the emigrant the quan¬ 
tity or weight of extra baggage he is entitled 
to, i. e., the amount he has paid for at the 
starting point. The amount in dollars and 
cents was seldom if ever entered. It would 
occasionally happen that the weight would be 
written upon each coupon attached to the 
ticket purchased by the emigrant. 

It was the practice in some instances to make 
no entry whatever upon the passage ticket 
of the quantity of extra baggage paid for. 
Instead of this, a receipt was given the emi¬ 
grant to enable him to claim his baggage with¬ 
out further payment when he reached his 
destination, in the event any dispute should 
arise. r 

In cases of this kind it was manifestly the- 
intention of the collecting party not to allow 
any proportion of the amount collected to the* 
different lines over which the excess weight 
had to pass to reach its destination. 

The omission was sought to be justified upon 
the ground that the amount of joint revenue 
thus confiscated justly belonged to the collect¬ 
ing company as a reimbursement for its 
expenses in connection with the emigrant busi¬ 
ness. It was, and is, perhaps, a sufficient answer 
to this claim, that if the emigrant business was 
not profitable in itself, it should not have been 
9 




130 


Baggage Car Traffic. 

sought after witli so much assiduity and at such 
great expense. 

In any event any expense incurred should 
have been made to appear, as in other cases. 
If it was desired that connecting lines should 
pay a portion of the expenses of securing emi¬ 
grant business, an agreement should have first 
been entered into with such lines, specifying 
the proportion they should pay. Bills for these 
expenses should have been rendered, so that 
the companies could know how much the busi¬ 
ness was costing them and what the items were 
that made up such cost. To withhold the 
expenses from the revenue that should accrue 
to the different lines from the transportation of 
the baggage of emigrants was not in accordance 
with good business usage. 

We can hardly fail to appreciate the great 
injustice of the practices named above when 
we remember that the collections for the 
immense quantities of extra baggage trans¬ 
ported annually for emigrants are not dis¬ 
tributed, generally, over the whole country, 
but are restricted, as already stated, to the few 
lines that possess a monopoly of the whole 
business. 

The interests of these were thus arrayed 
against any equitable and systematic division 
of the large and profitable traffic arising from 


Baggage Car Traffic. 131 

the transportation of the extra baggage of 
emigrants. 

To resume the description of the modus ope- 
randi of carrying on the through or inter-road 
business as heretofore conducted: 

The practice of entering the quantity of 
extra baggage on the passage ticket of the pas¬ 
senger has been described. When the passen¬ 
ger reached the terminal line the conductor on 
such line would take up the ticket and return it 
to the ticket accountant with his other collec¬ 
tions, so that when the baggage finally reached 
its destination the agent had no means whatever 
of determining whether any thing had been col¬ 
lected for the excess, and if so whether the 
amount collected was correct or not. He was 
consequently compelled to accept the statement 
of the emigrant. 

As a rule, the intermediate lines over which 
emigrant baggage passed, possessed no tangible 
evidence or voucher whatever, save the notation 
on the stub of the ticket. 

THE EXCESS LUGGAGE OF ORDINARY INTER¬ 
ROAD PASSENGERS. 

The remarkable peculiarities that surrounded 
the conduct of the baggage traffic in connection 
with the emigrant business were not wanting in 
connection with the manner of treating collec- 


132 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


tions made from ordinary or first class passen¬ 
gers destined to points on other lines. 

When extra baggage collections were made 
from such common or first class passengers, it 
was the custom for the forwarding company to 
collect the total charges due on the excess, and 
check the baggage through to its destination. 
But no account whatever was rendered bv the 
collecting company to the other lines for their 
proportion. 

A system that rendered such loose practices 
possible was indefensible. Yet no particular 
company appeared to be especially responsible 
for its existence. Yet every company in the 
country undoubtedly suffered from its continu¬ 
ance, some of them financially; all morally. 
Such a system of conducting business can not 
do otherwise than breed demoralization, loose 
habits of business, brazenry. A reliance upon 
individual trickery rather than friendly consul¬ 
tation and honest dealing. 

Of course when such practices were followed 
by all companies, the injustice partly equalized 
itself, but the circumstances attending the 
business of certain companies alwaj^smade them 
the greatest sufferers. 1 

I. Since the publication of this chapter (as originally written) 
in the Railroad Gazette, February 8th, 1878, the various rail¬ 
roads represented in the General Ticket and Passenger Agents’ 
Association, have agreed to report excess baggage as follows : 

“ Resolved , That every line represented in this Association 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


133 


NOT DIFFICULT TO PROVIDE A PROPER SYSTEM 

OF ACCOUNTING. 

It is not difficult to provide a simple and effi¬ 
cacious remedy for all the crudities found in con¬ 
nection with the transportation of the extra 
baggage of emigrants and other through pas¬ 
sengers. 

The forwarding or collecting company should 
be compelled, in all cases, to attach to the extra 
baggage, a way-bill or card, stating the weight, 
amount collected, and by whom collected ; the 
bill should also be numbered and dated. 

A record of this bill could be taken by each 
of the lines over which the baggage passed, and 
they could then, by requiring a detailed report, 
compel the collecting company to account accu¬ 
rately for the proportion belonging to each of 
the lines interested. 

Upon the arrival of the extra baggage at its 
destination, the agent would detach the way- 

shall require its baggage agent to attach to the strap-check of 
all extra through baggage a tag, on which shall be written the 
amount of extra baggage-money collected for the carriage of 
such baggage from the starting point to destination; and 
we hereby agree to report to tach line interested, from and 
after May 1st, 1878, its proper proportion of such collections 
on the basis of regular ticket divisions.” 

This is right, and proper, and worthy of all praise. Prior to 
the date stated in this resolution, each road, with unimportant 
exceptions, retained all it collected on account of the extra 
baggage of through first class passengers, and also the great 
bulk of collections on account of the excess baggage of emi¬ 
grants. 


134 Baggage Car Traffic . 

bill after having verified its correctness by care¬ 
fully re-weighing the baggage. 

The charges on all extra baggage received to 
which no way-bill was attached, would be col¬ 
lected by the receiving agent and reported to 
his company. 

It would be the duty of such company, in 
such cases, to report to the other companies 
interested, the proportions severally their due. 

A s} r stem of this kind seems to be required ; 
its effect would be to protect each of the com¬ 
panies ; it would be a necessary and proper check 
upon the collecting agent, and would guard the 
emigrant or passenger in a measure against 
injustice or outrage. 

EXCESS LOCAL BAGGAGE. 

In connection with the local baggage traffic, 
it may be stated that, to enable the receiving 
agent to ascertain definitely the place from 
which the extra baggage was shipped, it is 
necessary that the train baggageman’s way-bill 
should give the name of the forwarding station. 
Any other distinguishing mark or check 
attached to the baggage, would of course do as 
well. Inter-road checks, as a rule, give the 
name of the station where shipped, and the 
name of the destination as well. 



Baggage Car Traffic. 


135 


COLLECTIONS SHOULD BE MADE BY THE 
DECEIVING AGENT. 

As a rule, all collections for baggage car 
traffic should be made by the receiving agent, 
i. e., by the agent at station to which the traffic 
is destined. 

As already explained, the forwarding agent 
is frequently unable, for want of time, to ascer¬ 
tain whether the baggage presented to be 
checked comes under the head of extra baggage 
or not. It should be the duty of the agent at 
the terminal point, to discover these omissions 
and correct them. 

Although the forwarding agent does not 
always have the time necessary to examine into 
each case, yet he should, in every instance pos¬ 
sible to him, indicate in some simple way to the 
receiving agent every package that comes under 
the head of extra baggage. In the majority of 
cases he will be able to attach a way-bill to the 
packages, specifying the weight and amount 
that should be collected. Frequently, however, 
his figures will be only approximately correct, 
the weight of the packages being estimated. 
To remedy these defects, it should, of course, 
be the duty of the receiving agent, in all cases, 
carefully and dispassionately to review the 
statements of the forwarding agent. 




136 Baggage Car Traffic. 

EXTRA BAGGAGE PASSES. 

In the majority of instances, the charges due 
for extra baggage will be paid in cash, but it 
will frequently occur that passengers will 
present franks or permits in payment of the 
charges due. These are sometimes good only 
for a definite amount of baggage between cer¬ 
tain points named; then again they are made 
to call for a definite amount of baggage, but are 
good between all points on the line and run for 
a stated number of days, weeks or months. The 
latter may be called season franks or permits. 

These franks and permits, whether season or 
otherwise, issued for various good and sufficient 
reasons, will be found exceedingly troublesome 
when an attempt is made to simplify the ac¬ 
counting. 

To cover the case of those good for the season, 
it would be well, perhaps, to provide agents with 
a particular form of bill to attach to the bag¬ 
gage. The bill should recite the place of ship¬ 
ment, date of shipment, name of party by whom 
presented, number and date, by whom issued, 
and quantity of baggage entitled to passage, 
etc., etc. The receiving agent should detach 
the way-bill and transmit it to the Ticket 
Auditor, 1 so that its authenticit} 7 may be estab- 

i. Or General Baggage Agent, or whoever has charge of the 
baggage traffic accounts. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


137 


lished. The Ticket Auditor should also com¬ 
pare the way-bill so returned with previous bills 
returned for the same passenger. The effect of 
this comparison will be to prevent or expose, 
in the majority of cases, any attempt to hide 
actual cash collections, under cover of some 
season frank or permit known to be out¬ 
standing. 

A way-bill should be attached by the for¬ 
warding agent to all extra baggage shipped 
upon mileage tickets, the local charges being 
entered as in other cases. 

DISPOSITION OF WAY-BILLS, PASSES, ETC. 

Upon the arrival of the baggage at its desti¬ 
nation the way-bill should be detached by the 
receiving agent and transmitted to the Ticket 
Auditor. If charges are paid with cash, the 
amount should be entered under the head of 
cash, in the place provided on the ticket. If 
the charges are paid with mileage coupons, then 
coupons covering the specific miles the baggage 
has been transported should be detached and 
inclosed with the way-bill, the amount having 
first been entered on the bill in the place pro¬ 
vided. If a season frank or permit is presented 
in lieu of cash or mileage tickets, then a descrip¬ 
tion of such frank or permit should be entered 
in the proper place. Where payment is made 
with a trip frank or permit, such payment should 




138 Baggage Car Traffic. 

be inclosed with the way-bill to the ticket 
accountant. 

All franks or permits that can not be used but 
once should be taken up by the receiving agent 
when presented. 

A CHECK ON THE ISSUE OF SEASON PASSES, 

PERMITS, ETC. 

All franks, permits, coupons or other tickets 
calling for the transportation of baggage traffic 
and good for more than one trip should have a 
stub or auditor’s check attached. This check 
should recite all the particulars of the ticket, its 
date, time good for, amount collected for it, 
name of party to whom issued, amount of extra 
baggage it covers, by whom issued, etc., etc. 

This check should be detached by the agent 
upon the first presentation of the ticket or frank, 
and should be forwarded without delay to the 
Ticket Auditor; in the hands of that officer it is 
an additional and necessaiy check upon the 
party issuing the ticket, of which it is a fac 
simile. 

WHEN SUFFICIENT TIME IS NOT ALLOWED 

FOR WEIGHING. 

When an agent is satisfied or suspects that 
the baggage presented to be checked is in 
excess of the amount the passenger is entitled 
to pass free, yet no time is allowed him in 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


139 


which to investigate the facts, or even estimate 
the excess and fill up a way-bill for the same, 
then he should attach a card of some distinctive 
color to the baggage, as a signal to the receiv¬ 
ing agent to investigate the case fully ; and, if 
he (the receiving agent) finds that the baggage 
is properly subject to a charge under the rules 
governing the transportation of extra baggage, 
then he should make a bill covering the same. 

If it is not practicable to attach a card as 
suggested, then the receiving agent should be 
notified by telegraph, or the train baggageman 
should be directed to way-bill the baggage. 

IMPERATIVE NEED OF REFORM. 

The parcel traffic upon many of the suburban 
trains is not sufficiently large to warrant the 
Express Companies in providing a messenger, 
and otherwise making systematic effort to take 
charge of the business as they do upon other 
trains. It remains, therefore, for the railroad 
companies to exclude all parcels from trains 
not Avorked by the Express Companies, or pro¬ 
vide adequate machinery for collecting the 
revenue that should flow from them. 

It is evident to an observer that the large 
amount of produce, merchandise, and knick- 
knacks carried free in the baggage cars upon 
roads possessing a suburban population is of 




140 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


sufficient importance to warrant such roads 
in making an energetic and systematic effort to 
collect the charges due on that class of business, 
especially as the cost of doing so is little or 
nothing. 

A large revenue is derived from the produce 
and goods carried by the Express Companies 
on the suburban trains ; but there is a large 
part of the business carried directly by the rail¬ 
road companies that escapes pay altogether. 
As already noticed this suburban traffic that 
escapes without pay, while considerable in 
itself, is but a fragment of the baggage car 
traffic that is overlooked or ignored on the roads 
at large. We have explained some of the 
reasons for this omission ; the remedy is plain. 

In fact, to sum up, the supervision of the 
business, both through and local, needs careful 
revision. Instead of treating the extra baggage 
and parcel traffic as an unknown quantity to 
be ignored, or traded off in an unnecessary and 
unprofitable effort to secure business for other 
departments of the service, or abandoned as 
worthless, the pride and ingenuity of agents, 
trainmen and officials generally should be 
excited to the utmost, as it is in other depart¬ 
ments, to see that the legitimate revenue of the 
company from extra baggage and goods parcels 
is collected and accounted for to the utmost 
farthing. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


141 


It is sometimes offered in objection that the 
cost of thoroughly organizing the baggage 
traffic department is not warranted by the rev¬ 
enue that would be derived from it. This 
objection is not tenable. It might originall} 7 
have been offered, with the same show of 
reason, against any of the many sources of 
traffic possessed by a railroad. The expense 
of systematizing the baggage traffic should not 
prevent its consummation. The blanks required 
are few and exceedingly simple in their con¬ 
struction and cost. Every agent should, 
however, be supplied with all the different 
forms required to do the business efficiently, 
and his labors should be carefully and con¬ 
tinuously supervised until he understood and 
appreciated the importance of this particular 
branch of his duties. 

If the practices in force upon the different 
lines in reference to the conduct of baggage 
traffic were in all respects alike, no discrimi¬ 
nation would be exercised and no cause of 
public complaint would exist. 

The initiative in the business seems properly 
to rest with the general passenger and ticket 
agents. The admirable organization possessed 
by these gentlemen renders a consummation of 
the reform, if conducted by them, easy and 
simple. 


142 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


In the succeeding chapters the additional 
rules and regulations necessary to a proper 
conduct of the business will be more minutely 
sketched. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


143 


CHAPTER XII. 


COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS. 

A very ingenious and convenient form of 
ticket has crept into use, for the purpose, 
mainly, of accommodating the wants of com¬ 
mercial travelers and men of that character. 1 
The quantity of goods or samples carried by 
these agents greatly exceeds, in the majority of 
cases, the amount usually allowed to be carried 
free. In giving a rate for the transportation of 
goods, whether by passenger trains or otherwise, 
the quantity to be shipped, and the distance to 
be carried are proper subjects for consideration, 
hence the necessity of making separate provis¬ 
ion for the wants of the class of travelers we 
have mentioned. 2 Instead of paying in cash, 

1. The idea of the ticket in question was derived from a 
ticket of similar form for passengers, each coupon of such 
ticket entitling the holder to ride one mile. The originator of 
the ticket, whoever he may be, is entitled to high praise for his 
ingenuity and skill. 

2. “ Commercial Travelers excess luggage is charged, if 
booked at the commencement of the journey, according to a 
reduced scale, and they are allowed the privilege of booking 
their luggage from the station from which they start to the 
station at which their day’s journey is to end, whether it be a 
return journey or otherwise, although they may have occasion 
to stop during their day’s business at intermediate stations. 

“ Commercial Travelers' Vans (cars) and Vans containing 
Theatrical Clothing , the weight of which does not exceed 50 
cwt. are charged 18 cents per mile, minimum charge $1.88. 


144 Baggage Car Traffic. 

at local rates, from station to station as they 
proceed, they purchase at the headquarters of 
the company a ticket good for a certain distance 
for a specified quantity of baggage. Diminu¬ 
tive coupons are attached to this ticket or book, 
each coupon being good for one mile. If the 
extra baggage lias been transported ninety 
miles, ninety coupons are torn out of the book 
by the agent. The ticket described should be 
called a Mileage Ticket for Baggage Car 
Traffic. 


HOW THE COUPON MILEAGE TICKET IS USED. 

Each company is required to fix the limit of 
traffic which persons holding mileage tickets 
may transport free. We will suppose this limit 
to be fixed at two hundred pounds. The ticket 
is issued for say five hundred pounds. If the 
amount of baggage presented does not exceed 
two hundred pounds, then no charge is made. 

Vans weighing more than 50 cwt. can not be sent by passenger 
train .”—Midland Ry. of England , Jan. 31, 1878. 

The average rates charged for the excess luggage of com¬ 
mercial travelers by tire Midland Ry. Co. are given in a 
preceding foot note. 

“Commercial travelers’ vans, vans containing theatrical 
clothing, round abouts, caravans, showmen’s or hawkers’ vans, 
conveyed on carriage trucks at a uniform rate of 12 cents per 
van, per mile, minimum charge $1.88. Vans weighing more 
than 50 cwt. can not be sent by passenger train. Private 
vans containg plate glass, pictures or works of art are charged 
25 cents per mile, at owner’s risk. Minimum charge $1.88.”— 
London and Northwestern Ry. of England, Dec. 31, 1876. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


145 


If it does exceed two hundred pounds, then 
coupons should be detached. 

When a mileage ticket is presented by the 
holder of a proper passage ticket, the agent 
should see that the weight of the baggage 
exceeds the limit the passenger is entitled to 
pass free. If it does, coupons should be torn out 
in consecutive order for the number of miles the 
baggage is transported, each coupon being good 
for one mile or fraction of a mile. It is a part of 
the agreement that, when the distance the bag¬ 
gage is to be transported is three miles or less,,, 
the cliaro-es will be made for three miles. 

C—> 

In the event the baggage weighs more than 
the amount called for by the mileage ticket, the 
excess should be collected in cash and the 
official issuing the ticket, notified of the holder’s- 
attempt to defraud the company. The charges- 
for such excess should be reported the same as- 
ordinary baggage. 

Mileage tickets are not valid when presented 
by other than the person or persons in whose 
favor they are made. If presented by any other 
person cash should be collected and the Gen¬ 
eral Baggage Agent or official issuing the ticket 
notified of its improper and unauthorized use. 

Coupons should not be detached from the 
ticket except by the agent, as they are not valid 
when presented to the agent detached from the 
ticket. 

IO 


146 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


The mileage ticket should be taken up by the 
aorent and returned to the Ticket Auditor when 
the coupons have all been detached, or the time 
for which the ticket was issued has expired. 

To prevent the use of counterfeits, agents 
should see that the ticket is signed by the right 
official and properly stamped. 

The mileage tickets described are bound in 
book form, twenty coupons (miles) to a page. 
The tickets are usually issued good for one 
thousand miles, i. e ., there are one thousand 
coupons attached. There is, however, no rea¬ 
son, except the expense, why the tickets should 
not be provided for distances varying from one 
hundred miles to three thousand miles. 

The first page of the mileage ticket (book) 
describes the number of the ticket (each coupon 
attached bears a corresponding number), the 
name of the person to whom issued, the weight 
of baggage to be transported, etc. 

In addition to this, each company should 
require the holder of a ticket to sign a contract 
specifying the limitations of the ticket and the 
responsibility of the compairy; this contract 
should recite the consideration or price paid for 
the ticket. This contract should be transmitted 
for record to the Ticket Auditor by the official 
selling the ticket; this is necessary to secure a 
proper check upon such official, and any attempt 
to secure a check is incomplete without it. 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


147 


A company should always require similar 
articles of agreement to be signed and filed 
when the price to be collected for a thing by 
an official is discretionary with him. Such a 
rule would, in the main, protect the company 
and save the official from distrust. 

Reference has already been made to the 
desirability of inserting an auditor’s check in 
the ticket book. The auditor’s check should 
recite the particulars of the ticket. It is simply 
an extra leaf describing the name of holder, 
how much baggage he is entitled to, the num¬ 
ber of miles the ticket is issued for, the name 
of the official issuing the ticket, arid the date 
of issue. When the ticket is first presented 
for use the auditor’s check is detached by the 
' agent and forwarded to the Ticket Auditor. 
The possession of this information enables the 
accountant to detect counterfeits or raised 
tickets, and it is also a necessary part of the 
check on the official issuing the ticket. 

And for the same reason as already sug¬ 
gested, all tickets, orders, permits or franks 
issued that are good for more than one trip 
should have an auditor’s check attached. This 
auditor’s check is essential to a prompt and 
complete audit of the accounts. 

ANOTHER FORM OF BAGGAGE PERMIT. 

The quantity of extra baggage which a com¬ 
mercial agent, traveling through the country, 


148 Baggage Car Traffic . 

will have to transport, will vary greatly from 
day to day. The supply of goods which he is 
selling b}^ sample will become exhausted, and 
he will, consequently, dispose of the samples 
in his possession, or he will add new articles to 
his stock as he progresses on his journey. Now 
these passengers are allowed to transport 
certain baggage, so called. In consideration of 
the fact that they travel constantly, a company 
may permit them to carry more than the 
amount of baggage they would be entitled to 
as ordinary passengers. It may enter into an 
agreement with them, that in the event the 
weight of their baggage or samples does not 
exceed say two hundred pounds, no charge 
whatever will be made. To prevent any 
imposition on the company, that might some¬ 
times be successful through oversight or neglect 
on the part of agents, it is desirable to establish 
such a penalty as will prevent the holder of 
the permit we have described from attempting 
to procure, surreptitiously, the transportation 
of baggage in excess of the amount he is 
entitled to, without the payment by him of 
the usual charges therefor. To cover cases 
of this kind, it may be mutually agreed that 
in the event the quantity of baggage pre¬ 
sented exceeds the amount agreed upon, if 
only by a pound, then the usual charges 
for excess baggage should be collected for 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


149 


the full amount presented, except in those cases 
where the holder of the order voluntarily noti¬ 
fies the agent of such excess ; in such cases 
agents should charge only for the excess. 

HOW THE USEFULNESS OF THE MILEAGE TICKET 

MAY BE INCREASED—ITS USE UPON SUBUR¬ 
BAN TRAINS. 

The mileage coupon ticket seems to be exact¬ 
ly what is required to accommodate the mer¬ 
chandise and goods parcels that the wants and 
convenience of suburban residents and mer¬ 
chants require should be carried in the baggage 
car. The price could be adjusted for each 
ticket in accordance with the peculiar circum¬ 
stances attending it, and the use of the coupons 
would obviate the delay and annoyance that 
would otherwise occur in making change in 
each instance. 

There is no reason why the value of each 
coupon attached to the ticket, be they more or 
less, should not be greatly enhanced. 

Instead of a coupon being good for one mile 
(as the present use of the ticket prescribes) it 
could be made good for any distance, say from 
New York to Albany. 

Merchants and others would then purchase 
the tickets for use as occasion required. 

The tickets could be made good for any 


150 Baggage Car * Traffic. 

desired quantity, say ten pounds, or any multi¬ 
ple thereof. 

If the weight of the merchandise or miscel¬ 
laneous packages sought to be carried at any 
one time exceeded ten pounds and fell short of 
twenty pounds, two coupons instead of one 
could be detached from the ticket, and so on 
for each additional ten pounds. 

The usefulness of the ticket in the hands of 
a skillful officer is capable of infinite expansion. 

It would not be difficult to systematize the 
issue of these tickets so that coupons might be 
detached by the forwarding agents and pasted 
upon the package shipped by the suburban 
residents referred to ; such a plan would require 
but an instant’s time for its execution, and the 
company would be saved the expense and 
trouble of way-billing the traffic. 

The ticket can readily be made a great con¬ 
venience to the public and a source of new 
and important revenue to railroad companies. 

The consideration given to the parcel traffic 
abroad is a constant surprise to those familiar 
with the slight consideration given to the sub¬ 
ject by many of our companies. While the 
mammoth corporations of England look after 
the convenience and comfort of the passenger 
with the most painstaking care, 1 we are reminded 

i. “ Lavatory and Dressing Room accommodation, with vari¬ 
ous toilet and traveling conveniences, are now provided at the 
following stations: London (Euston), Liverpool (Lime Street), 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


151 


in many ways that they are particular to see that 
they receive pay for every service rendered. 1 

Manchester (Victoria and London Road), Chester, Birming¬ 
ham (New Street), Shrewsbury (General Station). 

“ Luncheon baskets for passengers traveling by the Up and 
Down Irish day mails are provided at the Chester Station at 
the following charges : 

“ No. i, Containing 

Pint, of Claret or one-half pint of Sherry, 

Chicken, Ham or Tongue, 

Butter, QJieese and Bread, 

Condiments, J 

“ A reduction of 36 cents will be made in the price of above 
should no wine be required. 

“ No. 2, containing 
Cold Meat or Pie, 

Bread and Cheese, 

Pint bottle of Ale or Stout, 

“ The Baskets must be given up at Holyhead on the Down 
journey and at Stafford on the Up journey, to be returned to 
Chester.”— Reg. London 6° N. W. Ry. Eng. 

Emulating the practices referred to above, the Philadelphia, 
Wilmington and Baltimore Road have arranged “ neat and 
roomy wicker hampers” in which to supply passengers upon 
its limited express between New York and Washington, with 
such meals as they may have ordered in advance through the 
conduc tor of the train. 

r. “ Gentlemen having Seats in the country, and residing 
occasionally in London, may have fruit and vegetables for their 
own use conveyed from any station in the country by passen¬ 
ger train, and delivered in London at reduced rates, particu¬ 
lars of which may be ascertained on application to the 
Superintendent.”— Reg. Midland Ry. of Eng. 




152 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

ACCOUNTING FOR BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. 

The lack of adequate clerical facilities, and 
the dispatch with which the business must be 
conducted, require that the appliances for way- 
billing extra baggage and other baggage car 
traffic should be as simple as possible; hence, 
in elaborating the following system, every 
effort has been made to reduce the clerical 
work of the agent to the minimum, and at the 
same time make the blanks required as few and 
convenient to handle as possible. 

It is, perhaps, proper to state here that in 
perfecting the system described in this and the 
accompanying chapters there has been no strain¬ 
ing after something new or original. After 
giving the subject of baggage traffic accounts 
much thought, in the vain attempt to make cer¬ 
tain existing plans answer the purposes required, 
such plans were reluctantly abandoned, and a 
new one formed, based on the same general 
principles that are in use to-day all over the 
country in connection with the freight and ex¬ 
press business. It was necessary to simplify and 
curtail the form and style of the freight blanks 
very much, adding several entirely new features; 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


153 


but the principal features, viz. the unpaid, pre¬ 
paid, and back charges, and the collection of 
charges by the receiving agent, remain the 
same. It seems evident that had the simplicity 
and comprehensiveness of the freight system 
been known to those in charge of the baggage 
traffic accounts, it would have been adopted by 
them long ago. 

o o 

THE COURSE TO BE PURSUED—THE FORM OF 
WAY-BILL TO BE USED. 

To relieve the forwarding agent (who is the 
official most pressed for time) as much as possi¬ 
ble, all collections on account of baggage traffic 
should be made by the agent at the terminal 
station, 1 except in the following cases: 

a. When the baggage traffic is destined to a 
station where there is no agent. 

b. When it is checked through to points on 
foreign lines. 

In these cases the charges should be prepaid, 
i. e ., they should be collected by the forwarding 
agent. 

While it is for many reasons desirable that 
extra baggage destined to foreign roads should 

i. The idea of making the receiving agent instead of the 
forwarding agent collect the charges on baggage car traffic 
originated, I am advised, with Dr. W. H. Stennett, a gentle¬ 
man prominently connected with the passenger business of the 
Northwest for many years. This idea makes it possible to 
secure a complete check upon the baggage car traffic. The 
business has always lacked this check heretofore and many 
irregularities have occurred in consequence. 


154 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


be prepaid, still it is not by any means absolutely 
necessary that it should be. The baggage is 
always good for the charges. It may be billed 
unpaid, and if occasion renders it necessary, 
charges may also be advanced upon it, as with 
local baggage. When foreign baggage is billed 
unpaid, or when charges are advanced on 
such baggage, the company making the delivery 
at the place of destination would make the 
collections and report to the lines interested. 

When the charges are prepaid they should be 
entered on the winy-bill 1 by the forwarding 
agent in the place provided for such charges. 

When the charges are to be collected at the 
terminal station, the amount should be entered 
in the place provided for local charges. 

i. “A.” 

FACE OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC WAY-BILL. 



( ) 

No. Parcels . 

From . To . 

How many passage tickets . 


No. Pounds . Rate !... 

Charges to be collected at terminus, viz : 

Local Charges, $. 

Back Charges, $. $. 

Prepaid charges collected by Forwarding 
Agent, the said charges being paid in . 


S 


Ka ggage Traffic way-bills should be bound in book form with 

























Baggage Car Traffic. 


155 


In forwarding baggage traffic for which cash 
or its equivalent is to be collected, the ordinary 
form of baggage traffic way-bill “ A ” should 
be used. 

It would be more convenient for agents, 
perhaps, if distinctive colors were used in 
providing for the different forms of baggage 
traffic way-bill. 

White pasteboard would answer very well 


a stub attached for the convenience of the agent in keeping a 
record of each bill made. 


“A.” 

BACK OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC WAY-BILL “ A.” 



Detached at . Station. 

Date .187.... 

Correct Weight . 


Paid in Cash, viz.: 

Local Charges, $. 

Each Charges, $.$. 

Paid with Coupons, viz.: 
Local Charges, $. 

Paid by Permit No . 

Dated . 

Signed by . 


Note. —This way-bill should be attached to the baggage or 
parcels by the usual check-strap or in any other way that the 
nature of the traffic may demand. Upon all parcels a small red 
label bearing the words “ Baggage Car Traffic ” might bet pasted 
so that in the event the way-bill became detached the label 
would still warn the receiving agent. In reference to extra 
baggage proper, the distinctive form of excess baggage check 
given the passenger serves to warn the receiving agent. 



















156 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


for form “ A.” Way-bills might be printed on 
strong linen paper if thought advisable. 

The face of each bill should be filled up by 
the forwarding agent. 

When a bill reaches its destination it should 
be detached by the agent and the reverse side 
of it filled up in accordance with the facts. In 
the first place the baggage should be re-weighed 
by the receiving agent and the excess accurately 
ascertained. If the local charges are paid in 
cash, a place is provided for inserting the 
amount. 

Back charges should in all cases be paid in 
cash. 

If a mileage ticket is presented in settlement 
of the amount due for local charges, then the 
agent should detach the number of coupons 
required, and insert the amount of the same in 
dollars and cents in the place provided. If a 
trip frank or permit, that can only be used once, 
is presented, he should take up the same and 
enter its number and date, also the name of 
party by whom given. If a season frank or 
permit is presented a description of the same 
should be inserted. 

A careful record of each way-bill, by both 
the forwarding and receiving agent, should be 
entered on the proper station books. 

From the record thus made on the station 
books, agents can keep their accounts in order 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


157 


and make the abstracts and returns required at 
the end of the month. 

The way-bills received by agents each day 
should be sent forward without delay to the 
Ticket Auditor. 

The cash way-bills received each day 
(whether the cash has actually been collected 
at the time or not) should be arranged and 
inclosed in a separate package to the Ticket 
Auditor. 

In those cases where way-bills are adjusted 
by receiving in payment mileage coupons, 
franks, or permits, as already described, or when 
settled partly in cash and partly in coupons, 
franks, or permits, then, and in that case, the 
agent should inclose' each way-bill separately 
with the coupons, franks, or permit to the 
Ticket Auditor. 

It is important that the coupons should reach 
the Ticket Auditor safely with the way-bill, as 
the said coupons are the voucher upon which 
he credits the receiving agent. The value of 
the coupons to the receiving agent is therefore 
that of cash. If a frank or permit is lost, a 
description of it might perhaps answer, but the 
loss of mileage coupons would be much more 
serious. 

Baggage car traffic must be way-billed pre¬ 
paid whenever the shipper desires it. In such 
cases if the charges are paid with mileage 


158 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


coupons, franks, or permits the fact will be 
stated in the place provided upon the face of 
the way-bill (A). The coupons, franks, or 
permits received must be inclosed (a separate 
inclosure being made for each way-bill, as 
already directed) to the Ticket Auditor, accom¬ 
panied by a statement that they were accepted 
in lieu of cash on account of Baggage Car 

Traffic way-bill No.-forwarded from-- 

to-, and giving the date of the bill. But 

7 o o 

this rule applies only when the traffic which it 
is desired to prepay is delivered at the depot 
in time to be properly weighed and billed. 
When it is not so delivered it should be billed 
unpaid, as directed elsewhere herein. 

This provision to prepay the charges on 
baggage car traffic seems necessary to satisfy 
the demands (whether reasonable or not) of 
those who object to the trouble and detention 
that the payment of the charges at the destina¬ 
tion would sometimes involve. When traffic 
is consigned to a large city or transfer point, 
there is a basis of reason for the objection of 
travelers to pay the charges at place of destina¬ 
tion, as the quantity of baggage to be unloaded 
at such points is considerable, the consequent 
delay might occasion the loss of a train or of 
means of conveyance to the hotel, etc., but if 
sufficient time is not allowed the forwarding 
agent to weigh and bill the baggage, passengers 





Baggage Car Traffic. 


159 


can not with reason complain if it is way-billed 
collectable at place of destination. 

Unpaid bills adjusted with mileage coupons, 
franks, or permits should not be entered in 
dollars and cents on the books or abstracts by 
the agent making the collection (but would be 
by the agent at the other end of the route) ; on 
the contrary a description of what is received in 
place of cash will be inserted; and in the same 
way when prepaid bills are adjusted with 
mileage coupons, franks, or permits, the amount 
in dollars and cents should not be entered on 
the books and abstracts b} T the forwarding 
agent, but instead of this a description should 
be inserted of what was received in lieu of 
cash. 

As directed elsewhere, free business should 
not be included in the monthly abstracts. Free 
business is intended to mean baggage traffic 
way-billed upon Form “ C,” described further 
on. All way-bills of Form “A” must be 
included in the monthly abstracts. 

It will frequently happen that Form “A” 
will be used in way-billing baggage when Form 
“ C ” should have been used; nevertheless 
Form “ A ” whenever used must be included 
in the monthly abstract. 

As the way-bills and vouchers (coupons, 
franks, permits, etc.) are sent forward by 
agents, in advance of the monthly abstracts, 


160 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


their possession by the Ticket Auditor will 

enable that officer to see that the agent is 

correct in his accounts of such payments, or 
# 

vice versa. 

Agents should be charged with way-bills in 
the month in which they are dated, without 
reference to the time of collection. 

In case baggage traffic is for any reason 
re-shipped to another station without the agent 
having been able to collect the amount 
charged to him in account, then the agent 
should detach the original bill, as in other 
cases, and make a new one, i. e.\ re-bill the 
baggage. The new bill should read from the 
place of re-shipment to destination. In re-bill- 
ing baggage traffic the amount of the original 
charges, both local 1 and back, upon the baggage 
should be inserted in the new way-bill as back 
charges. 

At the close of the month the agent that 
re-billed the baggage should charge himself 
with the original or first way-bill described 
above. As a set-off against this charge he 
should take credit in his monthly balance sheet 
for the amount of the back charges. The 
agent who finally collected the back charges 
should of course debit himself with such 
charges the same as he would with the 

i. The word local charges is intended to mean the unpaid 
through charges, whether the business is local or foreign. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


161 


amount of any local charges he might collect. 
Under ordinary circumstances all unpaid 
charges should be settled at the point to which 
the traffic was originally billed. But as cases 
will arise where this is exceedingly inconvenient 
or practically impossible, it becomes necessary 
to arrange to carry such charges forward. The 
provision herein for back charges does this. 

It also provides for any cash advances 
agents and conductors may find it necessary 
to make to passengers on their baggage, etc. 

As already explained, all particulars in 
reference to baggage traffic must be duly 
spread upon the cash book and other station 
books at the time by agents. 

Agents should take credit in their monthly 
balance, under the head of “ uncollected 
baggage traffic charges,” for the aggregate 
amount of any and all baggage traffic way-bills 
charged to them in account, but for which they 
have not for any reason been able to collect. 
In connection with this, the agent should be 
required to forward a detailed and separate 
statement of the uncollected charges, giving 
the particulars of the same. This statement 
should give the original date of the way-bill, 
date of its receipt, number, point from, point to, 
correct weight, local charges, and back charges. 
This statement may properly be called a “ list 
of uncollected charges on baggage car traffic.” 


162 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


WHEN THERE IS LACK OF TIME AT FORWARD¬ 
ING STATION. 

It will frequently occur, as already intimated, 
that the forwarding agent does not have the 
requisite time to investigate the facts in 
reference to supposed extra baggage presented 
to be checked as ordinary baggage ; or he is 
unable, perhaps, for want of time, to regularly 
way-bill the baggage traffic forwarded by him 
and known to be such. In these and all similar 
cases he should attach a memorandum bill, 
Form “ B ,” 1 to the baggage. 

i. “ B.” 

MEMORANDUM WAY-BILL OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. 



From ... Station. 

How many Passage Tickets .. 

No. of Pieces .... 

Upon receipt of the attached baggage 
the Receiving Agent will carefully weigh 
and otherwise investigate the same , and, 
if the facts warrant it, make an Extra 
Baggage Way-Bill of the proper form. 


Note.—W hen there is more than one parcel a separate bill 
should be attached to each; in such cases a number (it is 
immaterial what) should be inserted in the upper left hand 
corner, the same number appearing on each bill ; this informa¬ 
tion will enable the receiving agent to identify the baggage, 
and determine the amount of the excess. 













Baggage Car Traffic. 


163 


The receiving agent, upon receipt of such 
baggage, should carefully investigate all the 
facts in the case, and in the event it is found 
that the amount is in excess of the quantity 
entitled to, be passed free, then such agent 
should make a way-bill of the usual form, “A” 
or “ C,” as the case requires. 

The insertion by the forwarding agent of the 
number of passage tickets held by the owner, 
will enable the receiving agent to tell just how 
much baggage is entitled to pass free under 
the rules, the excess, if any, being chargeable 
as extra baggage. 

The insertion of the number of the station 
from which forwarded is not important, but it 
will be useful to the receiving agent in locating 
definitely the point of shipment if the mani¬ 
fest of the train baggageman or the check, 
attached should not furnish the information. 

To fill up and attach this memorandum bill 
will require but an instant, and it can conse¬ 
quently be done in all cases of doubt, or when 
the forwarding agent is hurried. 

In this way the case is not lost sight of, and 
no particle of the revenue of a company from 
this source will be lost. 

Instances will arise where extra baggage 
presented for shipmenUwill not be discovered 
or suspected by the forwarding agent, and will, 
in consequence, be sent forward without any 


164 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


intimation or warning to the agent at the 
terminal station. If such agent, however, is a 
shrewd, observing official, or is located at an 
interior point, he will, perhaps, discover the 
omission. In such a case he should make a 
way-bill, using the regular form. As already 
indicated, the baggage check attached, or the 
information contained in the train baggage¬ 
man’s manifest, ought to be such as to enable 
the agent to locate the point of shipment. 

Whenever for any reasoij it is necessary for 
the receiving agent to make a way-bill, he 
should, so far as possible, fill up both sides of 
the blank. The number as entered on the bill 
should in such cases be preceded by the letters 
“ R. A." (Receiving Agent), as “ R. A. 41.” In 
numbering bills of this description, the receiv¬ 
ing agent should commence with No. 1 on the 
* first of each month. A duplicate of each bill 
of this character should be made by the receiv¬ 
ing agent, and forthwith transmitted to the 
forwarding agent. The word “ Duplicate ” 
should be written in ink across both sides of 
the duplicate. Whenever the letters “ R. A.'” 
precede the number upon a bill, it will inform 
the Ticket Auditor, and all others interested, 
that the bill in question was made by the 
receiving agent. 

When for any reason baggage traffic is 
stopped in transit, for delivery to the owner at 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


165 


ail intermediate station, or when the train 
baggageman, under the direction of the owner, 
carries it beyond the point to which it is billed, 
then the agent at the station where it is 
unloaded shall insert in the way-bill the right 
destination, and should correct the local charges, 
making them more or less as the tariff pre¬ 
scribes, sending a notice of the correction, 
without delay, to the forwarding agent, so that 
he may alter his books. 

BAGGAGE TRAFFIC TO AND FROM FOREIGN 

ROADS. 

In billing baggage traffic through to points 
on foreign lines, Form “A” should be used, as 
in other cases. The charges, however, as 
already explained, should, for obvious reasons, 
be prepaid, though a better check would be 
secured on the collecting agent by billing it 
unpaid. In the event the agent is unable 
regularly to bill the baggage, as already 
explained in connection with local baggage, as 
described under head of Form “ B,” then he 
should pursue exactly the same course as 
directed in that case. 

If baggage traffic is received from points on 
foreign lines without way-bill or other indica¬ 
tion of its coming under that head, the 
receiving agent should, when the facts in the 
case come to his knowledge, make a through 


166 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


way-bill, form “ A,” as directed elsewhere in 
similar cases for local baggage. The reversible 
checks giving the name of the station from 
which checked will assist him to fix the amount 
of charges due on any baggage traffic he may 
receive from foreign lines. 

The proportion belonging to the respective 
companies for baggage traffic billed through 
from one line to or over another should be fixed 
the same as foreign passenger business, viz.: 
upon such basis as the officers of the lines 
interested may mutually agree upon. The 
reports of proportions due foreign companies 
on account of collections for baggage traffic 
passing over their lines can be made supple¬ 
mental to the monthly coupon (passenger) 
report, or a separate report can be made, as 
seems most desirable. The report should, 
however, give all the information shown by the 
way-bill, so that each company interested may 
properly locate each item of baggage it trans¬ 
ports. 

In connection with the inter-road business, 
the train baggagemen on lines intermediate 
between the point of shipment and final 
destination, should be required by their 
respective companies to send to their Ticket 
Auditor an accurate transcript of each and 
every through way-bill. This information is 
necessary to enable the intermediate company 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


167 


to see that it receives its just proportion of all 
the through baggage traffic transported by it. 

In the event the agent at the terminal point 
for inter-road business discovers that the 
amount collected at the point of shipment is 
not enough, he should fill up and enter the 
correct amount on the reverse side of the inter¬ 
road way-bill. Several changes will, however, 
be required in the phraseology of the way-bill 
to meet the requirements of cases of this kind. 
The amount collected by the forwarding com¬ 
pany he (the receiving agent) should insert 
opposite the words “ local charges.” These 
words he will alter to read “prepaid charges.” 
The amount of the undercharge to be collected 
by him he should insert in the place provided 
for “back charges.” He should, however, 
run his pen through the words “ back charges,” 
inserting “ undercharge ” in their place. This 
undercharge should be reported by the collect¬ 
ing company to the other companies interested, 
the same exactly as if it was for extra baggage 
forwarded instead of received. 

In the event the agent at the receiving station 
discovers that the forwarding company (i. e. 
the foreign agent) has charged too much, then 
he (the receiving agent) will make a note of 
the fact and report it to the Ticket Auditor, 
but will not alter the way-bill. 

Except when agents discover that baggage 


168 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


traffic received from foreign lines is under¬ 
charged, as already described, they will not 
alter or fill up the reverse side of way-bills 
received from such foreign lines. 

When way-bills, foreign or local, are billed 
prepaid and are correctly billed, no amount 
will, of course, be inserted on the reverse side 
of the way-bill by the receiving agent. If the 
bill is corrected the amount collected by the 
receiving agent will be inserted opposite local 
charges. 

In the event that - the receiving agent dis¬ 
covers that local prepaid baggage traffic has 
not been charged enough, then the amount 
of the undercharge will be inserted on the 
reverse side of the way-bill and duly collected. 

In the event the amount prepaid for local 
traffic is too great, then the receiving agent 
should notify the Ticket Auditor of the amount 
of the overcharge, but should make no correc¬ 
tion upon the way-bill, except to note the 
amount of the overcharge across the margin 
of it. 

Claims for overcharges should be referred to 
the Ticket Auditor for adjustment. 

A way-bill should be transmitted to the 
Ticket Auditor for every pound of extra bag¬ 
gage transported whether free or otherwise. 


Baggage Oar Traffic. 


169 


ACCOUNTING FOR TRAFFIC PASSED WITHOUT 

CASH PAYMENTS. 

/ 

It remains to provide for those cases where 
the agent is unable to transmit to the Ticket 
Auditor direct and palpable reasons why he 
does not collect cash or remit its equivalent for 
the baggage traffic which he permits to pass. 
He will be unable to do this when passengers 
hold season baggage franks or permits, or 
franks or permits good for a stipulated period, 
or when the frank or permit is written on the 
back of a passage ticket or pass, or when the 
agent is authorized, in his discretion, to pass 
baggage traffic free. 

It is manifestly impossible, in cases of the 
kind recited, that the order authorizing the 
transportation of the traffic should be trans¬ 
mitted to the Ticket Auditor with the way¬ 
bill. That officer is consequently compelled 
to rest satisfied with a statement or description 
of the order. This description he can compare 
or verify with the records of his office, which, 
as already explained, should be complete in 
every particular. 

In the cases we have just referred to and in 
others of a similar character, agents should be 


170 Baggage Car Traffic . 

provided with a special form of way-bill. 
Form “ C.” 1 

This form should be filled up and attached to 
the baggage by the forwarding agent, or in the 
event he does not have the time to fill it up, a 
blank way-bill of this form should be attached. 
This blank in such cases should be filled up by 
the receiving agent, but a copy need not be 
sent to the forwarding agent. The receiving 
agent is required, as in other cases, to detach 
way-bills of Form “ C ” upon receipt of bag¬ 
gage traffic and transmit the same to the Ticket 
Auditor. In the event baggage traffic of the 
character we have just described reaches a sta¬ 
tion without any way-bill attached, then the 
receiving agent should make a bill and send it 
to the Ticket Auditor, but a copy need not be 
sent to the forwarding agent. 

I. “ C.” SPECIAL BAGGAGE TRAFFIC WAY-BILL. 
























Baggage Car Traffic. 


171 


Detailed reports should be made to the 
Ticket Auditor daily, by the General Ba^as'e 
Agent and others, of all franks or permits 

issued, also all mileage, season or commutation 

✓ 

tickets disposed of; this information will be in 
constant requisition by the Ticket Auditor for 
the purpose of verifying the way-bills and 
accounts of agents transmitted to him. 

Baggage traffic way-bills (Form “ A.”) must 
be numbered consecutively, commencing with 
number one on the first of each month. 
Special baggage traffic way-bills (Form “ C.”) 
need not be numbered. 

Baggage should never be checked except 
upon the presentation of a passage ticket. 
When the baggage is checked the passage 
ticket should be punched with the usual station 
baggage punch. If this is done the ticket can 
not be used twice for the same purpose. 

SOMETHING ABOUT THE FORM OF BAGGAGE 
TRAFFIC WAY-BILLS—THE FORM USED 
ABROAD. 

In view of the action of the General Ticket 
and Passenger Agents’ Association, requiring 
each company to report charges collected by it 
on account of excess baggage destined to 
points upon other lines, the editor of the Offi¬ 
cial Railway Guide prints a form of blank 
already in use in New England, in connection 


172 Baggage Car Traffic. 


with inter-road traffic of this description. 1 He 


says: 

“ The form is very simple, and yet seems to 
cover all the ground required. Its various por¬ 
tions respectively designate the ‘excess bag¬ 
gage,’ enable tile baggage master to make out 
his report of collections and furnish a voucher 
therefor, and allows eacli road over which the 
baggage is transported to ascertain the extra, 
amount charged. In the hands of the passen¬ 
ger it becomes his receipt for the payment of 
the extra charge. The checks may be printed 
on heavy manila tag stock, which would be 
sufficiently strong for the purpose intended.” 

Those practically familiar with the details of 
the baggage department and the accounting 
connected with the excess charges on extra 
baggage, will understand how desirable it is, if 
possible, to avoid printing the number on the 
baggage traffic way-bill. The amount entered 
thereon is never the same, and in that respect 
the bill differs from the coupon passage ticket. 
Why the excess baggage way-bill should have 

i. 


pi 

pi 

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H 

£ 

W 

£ 

h 

X 

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Baggage Car Traffic. 


173 


a printed number any more than the through 
freight way-bill, it is difficult to tell. The cost 
involved for printing and accounting in excess 
of what a plain unnumbered blank would-cost, 
cannot but be very great. While the ticket 
referred to by the G-uide possesses many desir¬ 
able qualities, it is not sufficiently comprehen¬ 
sive to answer all the varied requirements of 
the business. It does not possess sufficient 
elasticity, besides, it presupposes the prepay¬ 
ment of the charges in every instance. It 
makes no provision for advances being made on 
baggage, while it is evident that the interests 
of a company frequently require that advances 
should be made. Either of the defects named 
are fatal to the permanence and usefulness of 
the form in question, or any form based upon a 
similar theory. 1 


I. In this connection I desire to say that although the 
blanks contained herein, original with me, are copyrighted, I am 
not disposed to take advantage of such fact in the event any 
railway company should desire to use them. 


AUSTRIAN RAILROAD BAGGAGE TRAFFIC WAY-BILL. 

From.to...via._...to Train. 

B a gg<xg e Receipt and Way-Bill No. I. 


174 


Baggage Car Traffic . 



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dyspeptic traveler in America ponder over it, 






































































































































Baggage Car Traffic. 


175 


CHAPTER XIV. 

ACCOUNTING FOR THE PROCEEDS OF BAGGAGE 

CAR TRAFFIC. 

After the adoption of a simple and compre¬ 
hensive form of conducting the baggage car 
traffic, such as we have sketched, it remains 
to provide the machinery required to secure 
intelligent accounting upon the part of agents, 
so that the auditing of the accounts may be 
prompt and thorough. 

In auditing the freight accounts of a road the 
receipts of stations correspond exactly with the 
amounts reported as forwarded by the various 
stations, and the fact that they so agree is 
corroborative evidence of the correctness of the 
accounting. 

This check is hardly possible with the baggage 
car traffic. It is only occasionally that it is 
necessary to correct the original extensions as 
entered on a freight way-bill. With the bag¬ 
gage car traffic it is different. The forwarding 
agent does not have the time that the freight 
agent does to accurately weigh the freight and 
bill it correctly: on the contrary, he is com¬ 
pelled, as we have shown, frequently to estimate 


176 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


the weight of the shipment. These estimated 
amounts the receiving agent corrects, substi¬ 
tuting the actual figures. Now, unless the re¬ 
ceiving agent notifies the forwarding agent of 
these corrections, so that the latter may alter 
his books, the amounts as returned by the two 
agents will not, of course, agree. 

The receiving agent can be required to 
notify the forwarding agent of all changes made 
upon the latter's bills, but as the number of 
these alterations promise to be very large, it 
seems very desirable, if possible, to avoid the 
labor and expense of sending such notices. 
By reference to the form of return made by 
agents, “D" and u E,'’ it will be seen that pro¬ 
vision has been made for the constantly recur¬ 
ring differences noticed. 

Baggage car traffic billed to stations at which 
there are no agents, must be taken up on the 
books and in the returns of the agent at the 
next station beyond, and the billing agent will 
report it in his monthly abstract as forwarded 
to such station. 

The reports, books, and accounts in connec¬ 
tion with the baggage car traffic, to be written 
up by agents, in addition to the usual forms of 
way-bills are few and inexpensive. They may 
be described in order as follows: 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


177 


MONTHLY ABSTRACT OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC 
FORWARDED. “D.” 1 

For the baggage traffic forwarded from the 
different stations the agents thereat are required 
to make a monthly abstract. 

The abstract should be sent to the Ticket 
Auditor on the fifth day after the close of the 
month. 

All the way-bills for each station to which 
baggage traffic has been billed during the 
month should be grouped together. 

The bills for each station should, so far as- 
possible, be entered in numerical order. 

If no baggage traffic has been forwarded 
during the month, the headings of a blank 
abstract should be filled up and transmitted. 

The abstract should embrace a correct state¬ 
ment of every way-bill forwarded, excepting; 
baggage billed free as described elsewhere. 

i. “D.” 


Monthly Abstract of Baggage Car Traffic Forwarded from 
- Station for the month of -, 187—. 


Date of 

Way Bill. 

No. of 
Way Bill. 

Destina¬ 

tion. 

Weight. 

Unpaid 
local 
charges 
as origi¬ 
nally 
hilled. 

Unpaid 
local 
charges 
as cor¬ 
rected by 
Receiv¬ 
ing agt. 

Prepaid 

charges. 

Back 

charges. 















Note.— A Record Book of the same form and style, sub¬ 
stantially, as the above should be kept at each station. The 
column headed “unpaid local charges as corrected by the 


12 

































178 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


Following each station the. total footings for 
such station should be entered. 

In making- the abstract the column headed 
“ unpaid local charges as corrected hy the 
receiving agent,” should not be filled up by 
the agent, but should be left blank to be filled 
up by the Ticket Auditor. 

Stations should be arranged in the abstract 
in the order in which they are named in the 
list of stations. 

When baggage traffic is billed to points on 
foreign lines, such places should be entered last 
in the abstract; the stations for each foreign 
road should be grouped together in alphabetical 
order. To enable the Ticket Auditor to iden¬ 
tify the destination and route of foreign bills, the 
number of the coupon ticket Form should be 
entered after the name of the place of destination. 

Baggage traffic to or from the same point, 
but going via a different route, should be 
entered separately in the abstracts. 

At stations where a copying press is used an 
impression of the abstract should be preserved. 

At the close of the abstract a recapitulation 
should be entered, giving the aggregate 
amounts forwarded to the different stations and 
places. The recapitulation should be footed. 

Upon receipt of the abstracts by the Ticket 

receiving agent,” should be omitted from such book, but in 
place of this a column for the Rate should be inserted. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


170 


Auditor it should be the duty of that officer to 
compare the same with the way-bills and with 
the abstracts of baggage traffic received, as 
returned by agents and others, any errors or 
omissions being carefully corrected and the 
agent forthwith notified of the same. 

MONTHLY ABSTRACT OF BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC 

RECEIVED. “E.” 1 

Agents at the various stations should be 
required to make a monthly abstract of all bag¬ 
gage traffic received by them each month, 
except baggage billed free on Form “ C.” 

If nothing is received then a blank abstract 
should be filled up and sent to the Ticket 
Auditor. 

Way-bills should be included in the month 
in which they are dated, and if not so included 
they should be added by the Ticket Auditor. 

i. “E.” 


Monthly Abstract of Baggage Car Traffic Received at 
Station for the Month _ ,187 . 


Date of 
Way Rill. 

Date of 
Receiptof 
Way Bill. 

No. of 
Way Bill. 

Where 

from. 

Weight. 

Unpaid 
local 
charges 
as billed 
by For¬ 
warding 
Agent. 

Unpaid 
local 
charges 
as cor¬ 
rected by 
Receiv¬ 
ing Ag’t. 

Prepaid 

charges. 

Back 

charges. 

















A record book similar to the above form should be kept at 
each station for entering baggage traffic received. A column 
for the “ Rate ” should be added in such book ; also a column 
for the address of the owner. 














































180 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


Baggage traffic way-billed by the receiving 
a^ent should be included in the abstract of the 
month in which the baggage was received at the 
terminal point. All other way-bills should be 
included in the month in which they are made 
by the forwarding agent. 

Way-bills received after the abstract for the 
month has gone forward should forthwith be 
transmitted to the Ticket Auditor with a letter 
explaining the case. 

The abstract should embrace all way-bills 
excepting those billed free on Form “ C,” as 
already intimated. 

The various columns of the abstract should 
be filled up as per their respective headings. 

The footings of every way-bill, whether cor¬ 
rected or not, should be entered by agents in 
the column headed “ unpaid local charges as 
corrected by receiving agent.” When the 
local charges as corrected are the same as those 
originally inserted in the way-bill by the for¬ 
warding agent, then the amount need not be 
entered in the column preceding the one named 
above; in all other cases both columns should 
be filled up. 

The abstract should be sent to the Ticket 
Auditor on the fifth day after the close of the 
month. The abstracts are held by agents until 
the fifth of the succeeding month, so as to give 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


181 


ample time for all bills to reach their destina¬ 
tion in time to be included in the account for 
the month in which they are dated. 

All the way-bills for each station from which 
baggage traffic has been received during the 
month should be grouped together; the bills 
should, so far as possible, be entered in numeri¬ 
cal order. Following each station the total 
footings for such station should be entered. 

Stations should be arranged in the order in 
which they are named in the list of stations. 

When baggage traffic is received from points 
located on foreign lines, the account of such 
business should be entered last in the abstract, 
the stations for each foreign road being grouped 
together in alphabetical order. 

At stations where a copying press is used an 
impression of the abstract should be preserved. 

At the close of the abstract, a recapitulation 
should be entered, giving the aggregate amounts 
received from the different stations and places. 
The recapitulation should be footed. 

Upon receipt of the abstracts by the Ticket 
Auditor, it should be the duty of that officer to 
compare the same with the way-bills, and with 
the abstracts of baggage traffic forwarded, as 
returned by agents and others, any errors or 
omissions being carefully corrected, and the 
agent forthwith notified of the same. 

o 


182 


Baggage Car Traffic. 



It should also be the duty of the Ticket 
Auditor, before certifying to the baggage traffic 
returns of agents for the month to the general 
accounting officer, to see that the aggregate 
amount received from local stations agrees 
exactly with the amount forwarded from local 
stations, etc., etc. 

STORAGE OF BAGGAGE, LOST CHECKS, ETC. 

Agents are required to make a report to the 
Ticket Auditor, each month, of all moneys col¬ 
lected on account of lost checks. This report 
must also embrace collections for storage, and 
other miscellaneous purposes incident to the 
handling and care of baggage. The body of 
the report must specify : the date of collection ; 
number of check or ticket; from whom col¬ 
lected; what the collection was made for; and, 
finally, the amount collected. 

Agents should make a special charge, in their 
monthly balance sheet, of the amount of all 
collections made by them for lost baggage 
checks, storage of baggage and kindred objects, 
as referred to in the preceding paragraph. No 
account of such collections should be entered 
in the baggage abstracts. 


/ 


I 


Baggage Cay' Traffic . 183 


LIST OF UNCOLLECTED CHARGES ON BAGGAGE 
CAR TRAFFIC. “ F.” 1 

Ill the event there are any outstanding 
charges due at the close of the month the agent 
should take credit for such amount, as already 
directed in his monthly balance sheet, and for¬ 
ward with the same a “list of uncollected 
charges on baggage car traffic.” 


RECEIPTS MUST BE GIVEN FOR ALL MONEYS 
COLLECTED. “G.” 2 

Agents should be required in all cases to give 


i. “F.” 


List of Uncollected Charges on Baggage Car Traffic at 
Station for the Month of ___ ,187 . 


Date of 
Way bill. 

Date of 
Receipt of 
Way Bill. 

No. of 
Way Bill. 

Where 

from. 

Unpaid 
local 
charges 
as billed 
by For¬ 
warding 
Agent. 

Unpaid 
local 
charges 
as cor¬ 
rected by 
Receiv¬ 
ing Ag’t. 

Prepaid 

charges. 

xf 

0 u 

03 

pq m 

c 

Is bagg’e 
worth the 
ain’t of 
charges? 

















2. 


“G.” 


Blank Bond, 


Station , 


.187 


Beceived of ___ 

$_, for Charges on Baggage Car Traffic, viz - 

forwarded from - Station to - Station 

._187 . Way Bill Bo - 

___ t Agent. 






























































184 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


a receipt for all charges collected by them on 
baggage traffic. This receipt is at once a 
protection to the company, to the agent, and 
to the passenger. 


POCKET MEMORANDUM BOOK OF BAGGAGE CAR 
. TRAFFIC FORWARDED. “ H .” 1 

For the convenience of the agent in keep¬ 
ing a record of any baggage traffic he may 
bill, he should be provided with a small record 
or pocket memorandum book in which he can 
note, at the time, such particulars as he will 
subsequently require in writing up the perma¬ 
nent records and accounts of the station. The 
little clerical work connected with the billing 
of the baggage car traffic will have to be done, 
in the majority of cases, on the depot platform. 
This fact has not been forgotten in arranging 
the form of way-bill to be used, the size being 
so reduced, compared with ordinary freight 
way-bills, that they can be carried without in¬ 


i.“ H.” 

Memorandum Record of Baggage Car Traffic billed at 
_ Sta tion. 


ai 

a 


P 



S 

o 

tl 



a a> 
o i c 

i- 

f—» 




& 


5 tc 

Cl c— 


9 ct 












































185 


Baggage Car Traffic. 

convenience or soiling in the pocket of the 
agent. 

When a stub is attached to the way-bill, it 
should be used; no entry need then be made 
in this book in such cases. 

The memorandum book can also be used to 
record collections for lost checks, storage, etc., 
a portion of it being set apart for that express 
purpose. 

It remains to provide a form of correction 
sheet, to be used by agents in notifying each 
other when local charges are changed in 
consequence of alteration being made in the 
destination of the baggage, as already described, 
or when for any other reason it may be desired 
to send a notice of correction . 1 

To make the check on the baggage traffic 

1 NOTICE OF ERRORS. 

“ I.” 

_ Station ,_187 . 


Agent at_ _ Station : 

I have corrected _ Baggage Car Traffic Way Bill 

to read to _ station as follows : 


Date of 
Way Bill. 

1 - 

No. of 
Way Bill. 

Where 

from. 

Where to. 

— 

Weight. 

Rate. 

Local 

charges. 

Prepaid 

charges. 


Back 

charges. 
















Note. —The Ticket Auditor will require a blink similar in 
many respects to the above form for use in notifying agents of 
corrections made in their abstracts and way-bills. 















































186 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


complete, the train baggageman should be 
required to report to the ticket accountant the 
particulars of each and every baggage traffic 
way-bill. A report should be forwarded for 
each train. It should recite: The date of the 
way-bill ; number ; where from ; where to ; 
weight; local charges ; prepaid charges. Such 
a report is indispensable to the ticket account¬ 
ant. In the event agents and others should 
omit way-bills from their monthly abstracts, 
the information afforded by this report will 
enable the ticket accountant to at once discover 
and correct the omissions. It is also a complete 
record of inter-road business, and is especially 
valuable to the lines intermediate between the 
billing and receiving companies. 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


187 


CHAPTER XY. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO AGENTS, STATION BAGGAGE- 
MASTERS, TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN AND OTHERS 
IN REFERENCE TO THEIR DUTIES IN CON¬ 
NECTION WITH THE REGULAR BUSINESS OF 
THE BAGGAGE DEPARTMENT. 

A brief description of the workings of the 
ordinary business of the Baggage Department at 
the stations and upon the trains is appropriate 
here. This description can, perhaps, best be 
given b}^ describing the rules and regulations 
that should govern agents and baggagemen. 

In preparing these rules and regulations a 
careful examination has been made of the 
workings of many prominent and well managed 
roads. The instructions are, therefore, not the 
work of any one man, but represent the expe¬ 
rience of many. They have been carefully re¬ 
vised and greatly enlarged, and seem to embrace* 
with what has already been written, everything 
that it is important an agent or baggageman 
should know. These rules, as already inti¬ 
mated, have little to do with the baggage 
car traffic for which pay is exacted, further 
than that they harmonize generally with the 
directions already laid down in preceding 
chapters. 


/ 


188 Baggage Car Traffic. 

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO AGENTS AND TRAIN 

BAGGAGEMEN. 

The liability of the railway company for the 
loss of baggage, or for any unnecessary or 
avoidable injury done to it while in the com¬ 
pany’s possession, seems to be, whether justly 
or not, an established fact. It is therefore 
especially important that those connected in 
any way with the baggage department should 
exercise the utmost care in handling and watch¬ 
ing over the baggage intrusted to them. It 
should be remembered that the interests of the 
company and the interests of the passenger are 
identical. 

All employes in any way connected with 
the department are expected at all times to 
exercise their skill and ingenuity to the utmost, 
in securing for the company they represent, 
every species of revenue that justly belongs 
to it. 

The employes are not allowed to collect or 
accept any fee, or perquisite for acts per¬ 
formed, or for concessions granted by them . 1 

When no charge is exacted by a company 

I. “ The servants of the company are strictly prohibited 
from receiving gratuities, and passengers are urgently requested 
to abstain from giving them money ; any servant of the com¬ 
pany detected accepting a gratuity will be liable to fine or 
dismissal.”— Reg. London and N. IV. RyEng. 

“No gratuity under any circumstances is permitted to be 
taken by any servant of this company.”— Reg. Midland Rv. 
of Eng. 


/ 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


189 


for a particular service, none should be made 
by its employes. 

When upon duty they must wear the uni¬ 
form prescribed by the company. 

For the information of the General Baggage 
Agent, and to enable that officer to trace the 
baggage transported by the company, and for 
other reasons, he requires an accurate report 
of the number of each and every check attached 
to the trunks or parcels carried. 

It is also directed that when unchecked pack¬ 
ages are transported, a brief description of the 
same, including the address, must be entered on 
the various records and statements. Envelopes 
containing ordinary statements, reports, letters, 
etc., are excepted from this rule. A careful 
record must, however, be made of all valuable, 
letters or packages said to contain valuable 
inclosures. The record of all valuable letters 
and packages and all unchecked parcels must 
be so clear and explicit that they may be traced 
from point of delivery to place of destination. 

Agents and train baggagemen will be held 
personally responsible for the value of all pack¬ 
ages for which they receipt, unless the same are 
delivered by them in like good order at desti¬ 
nation or unavoidably destroyed by fire or 
otherwise while in their possession. It thus 
becomes of the greatest importance to agents 
and baggagemen that they should carefully 
compare the articles with the receipt before 


190 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


signing the same, otherwise they may become 
responsible for property never in their pos¬ 
session. 

No person except authorized officials must be 
allowed to have access to the baggage or 
baggage checks in the company’s possession. 

Stationery, reports, and blanks of all kinds 
connected with the baggage department should 
be procured by requisition from the company’s 
stationer. 

No one will be permitted to open a trunk or 
package without first delivering up the check 
for the same, and formally receiving the baggage 
or parcel. 

Rough handling of baggage, improper lan¬ 
guage to passengers , 1 boisterous conduct, pro¬ 
fanity or incivility of any nature, to or in the 
presence of passengers, on the part of the 
agents or baggagemen will occasion the inflic¬ 
tion of a severe penalty b}^ the company. 

Employes of the baggage department must 
be so manifestly careful and painstaking in the 
performance of their duties as to relieve the 
public of all just cause of complaint . 2 

1. “ In all their deportment towards passengers they will be 
gentlemanly and accommodating; and when passengers 
expect or claim what it may not be proper to grant they can 
decline with such explanation or reasons as will be likely to 
prove satisfactory, and not the cause of offense. They will not 
permit passengers to ride in the baggage car.” — Regulations 
III. Road , 1853. 

2. “ Baggage is sometimes injured by careless handling, but 
I do not think it is worse treated in Italy than elsewheie. 
There are occasional complaints of pillage of trunks by con- 



Baggage Car Traffic. 


191 


In receipting for baggage the condition of 
the locks should be particularly examined. 

Agents and baggagemen are instructed to tie 
up, or otherwise carefully secure any.baggage 
they receive in bad order and any baggage that 
may get in bad order while it is in their care. 
Rope or cordage for this purpose will be 
furnished by the company’s storekeeper. 

All articles found in the cars or upon the 
track and remaining uncalled for twenty-four 
hours, and all articles found at stations and 
remaining uncalled for one week, must be for¬ 
warded to the general baggage office . 1 A state¬ 
ment must accompany all such articles. This 
statement must recite the date when the article 
was found, also the number of train or name 
of place, name of person by whom found, also 
a description of the article and the name of the 
person transmitting the same. 

STATEMENTS AND RETURNS REQUIRED OF 

AGENTS. 

They should keep a record of all baggage 

ductors and baggagemasters, but in the many thousands of 
miles I have traveled of railway in Italy, since i860, I have 
never lost anything by theft except trunk-straps, which, unless 
nailed to the trunk, are taken off not unfrequently.” —Private 
letter from Italy. 

1. A full and complete record should be kept in the general 
baggage office of all articles transmitted to such office. 

“ All articles found in trains and not claimed within 
twenty-four hours will be sent to the general office of the com¬ 
pany, and in such cases due notice must be given.” — Roman 
Railway, 1872. 


192 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


forwarded from or received at their stations. 
This record must give the number of the train* 
date, number of the check, and name of train 
baggageman. For baggage forwarded it must 
give place of destination, and for baggage 
received, it must give name of place where 
checked. 

They should deliver, with all baggage loaded 
into baggage cars, a detailed description of the 
same, taking the receipt of the train baggage¬ 
man upon the stub corresponding to such 
detailed description. This Way-Bill of Baggage 
Forwarded must recite the date, name of the 
station where loaded, the numbers of the checks 
and place of destination, a description being 
given when no check is attached. 

They are required to sign and transmit to the 
General Baggage Agent the “ statement of 
baggage delivered ” which the} r receive with 
baggage and parcels from train baggagemen. 

All claims for loss or damage, or complaints- 
relative to baggage must be addressed to the 
General Baggage Agent. 

They should promptly advise the General 
Baggage Agent of any carelessness or neglect 
of duty upon the part of train baggage¬ 
men ; they will also advise him of any other 
matters of special importance concerning the 
baggage department that the interests of the 
company render it desirable he should know. 

All communications concerning checks, miss- 



Baggage Car Traffic. 


193 


ing baggage, etc., should be addressed directly 
to the General Baggage Agent. 

The following statements, reports, etc., 
required by the General Baggage Agent are 
explained more fully further on : 

1st. Applications for lost baggage. 

2d. Receipts for mismatched checks. 

3d. Receipts for baggage delivered, for which 
checks are lost. 

4th. Weekly reports of unclaimed baggage 
and parcels. 

5th. Baggage to be returned with estray 
cards attached, when the said baggage has 
remained unclaimed for thirty days. 

6th. To transmit on each Monday all super¬ 
fluous checks on hand. 

7th. To transmit with statement all odd or 
mismatched checks. 

8th. Copies of orders of owners, directing 
unclaimed baggage to be forwarded. 

9th. Train baggagemen’s Statements of bag¬ 
gage delivered at stations. 

STATEMENT OF BAGGAGE DELIVERED BY 
TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN TO AGENTS. 

Agents, on receiving from train baggagemen 
the usual statement for baggage delivered at 
their station, will at once compare the numbers 
of checks as entered on said statement with the 
numbers of checks on the baggage, and if found 

to be correct they will sign the said statement. 

13 


194 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


If incorrect, the words “not correct” will be 
written at the foot of the statement, and the 
error or discrepancy noted in full on the back. 
This notation on the back of the statement 
must also be signed by the agent. They will 
in no case change the figures on the baggage¬ 
men’s statement of baggage delivered, or at¬ 
tempt to correct errors, except as above in¬ 
structed by notations on the back thereof. 
They will sign and inclose the statement of 
baggage delivered at their stations by train bag¬ 
gagemen to the General Baggage Agent, by the 
first passenger train. 

DIRECTIONS FOR CHECKING BAGGAGE, THE 
CARE OF CHECKS, ETC. 

Agents are required in all cases to check the 
baggage of passengers, giving to each passen¬ 
ger in exchange for his baggage, the form of 
check provided for such purpose. 1 

When a passenger has more than one piece 
of baggage, each piece must be checked. 

Packages must not be checked when articles 
are attached, such as umbrellas, coats, shawls, 

I. “All office porters, before pasting a label on any descrip¬ 
tion of luggage, are to see if any of the company’s labels be 
already thereon, when such is the case, the new label is to be 
pasted over the old one. 

“ All articles of luggage for London, not taken charge of by 
the passengers themselves, are to have red labels pasted on, 
showing the initial letter of the owner’s surname .’’—English 
Road. 


Baggage Ca r Traffic. 


195 


etc., but the passenger must be first required to 
detach such articles. 

The delivery of the check to the passenger is 
an acknowledgement of the possession of the 
baggage by the railroad company. 

In loading baggage, particularly at the start¬ 
ing point, that which is to be unloaded first 
should so far as possible be put into the car last. 
An intelligent observance of this rule will 
greatly relieve the train baggagemen and will 
save much unnecessary handling of baggage, 
thus decreasing the risk of its being damaged 
while in the company’s possession. 

Agents must not allow baggage to be put on 
board passenger trains without being checked. 1 

Packages will not be received or checked as 
baggage, unless accompanied by a passenger. 

Agents should request passengers to get their 
baggage checked before train time. 2 

They must in all cases have passengers show 
their tickets before checking their baggage. 

In no case should they check baggage unless 
the passenger has a ticket or a pass, and they 
should not check beyond the destination of the 
said ticket or pass. 

They must at all times keep a sufficient supply 

1. “ No baggage must be put on board unless its destination 
is known.”—1853. 

2. “ Unless baggage is delivered fifteen minutes before the 
starting time of a train, it will not be forwarded by such train. 
Baggage will not be forwarded unless the owner exhibits a 
passage ticket .”—Regtilations Austrian Roads, 1877. 


196 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


of checks on hand to accommodate the business 
of their stations. 

They are not allowed to lend the checks 
assigned to their particular use, to other agents 
or to train baggagemen. 

They should be particular to see that checks 
are properly matched before handing them to 
passengers. 

Theyare required to examine carefully all 
checks on hand, once in each week, and see that 
they are properly matched. 

They will also examine them when stringing 
them for use. 

They will be held accountable for the proper 
matching of checks. 

They will send to the General Baggage Agent, 
on Monday of each week, all of the local and 
baggage traffic checks that can be spared. The 
card attached should give the name of the sta¬ 
tion from which the checks are sent, with the 
statement noted thereon, “not needed.” 

All odd or mismatched checks must be for¬ 
warded to the general baggage offi ce promptly, 
with a full explanation of each particular case. 

In checking baggage to local points, agents 
should use the station baggage numbers as they 
are given on the official list. 

They should check baggage to all stations on 
the company’s lines to which they sell local 
tickets. For this purpose local checks should be 
used. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


197 


Baggage destined to points on foreign roads 
must be checked via the route over which the 
passenger holds a ticket. If agents have no 
checks bj such route, they will not check 
beyond their company’s line except when the 
passenger desires the baggage to be checked to 
some point en route. 

Reversible checks will in all cases be used in 
checking baggage through to points on foreign 
lines. 

Baggage should be marked plainly with the 
number of station to which it is sent. 

For indicating the number of station to which 
baggage is destined, the usual cardboard tag 
will be used. 1 

Agents can not be too careful not to make 
a mistake in entering the number of the station, 
on the cardboard tag referred to above; any 
such mistake involves the miscarriage of the 
property and its possible loss. 

Baggage should never be marked with chalk. 

Agents will not, under any circumstances, 
double check baggage from their station to any 
other station. 

When it is necessary to forward baggage that 
does not bear a check, and that is not accom¬ 
panied by the owner, they will put a strap 
check on the baggage and send the duplicate 

I. “All baggage to go on the cars must be put in the most 
convenient place for loading, and must always be plainly 
labelled or marked, to show where it is to be delivered.”—1853. 


198 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


in a letter to the agent at the station where 
the baggage is to be left. In the letter of 
advice the receiving agent should be informed 
what kind of baggage the check calls for and to 
whom it belongs. This rule applies only to 
baggage destined to local points. Baggage 
checked in the manner described must be 
identified by the owner before delivery. 

LOST AND ESTRAY BAGGAGE. 

When checks are presented for which agents 
have no baggage, they must ascertain at what 
station the baggage was checked, and the date 
and train checked for; also any distinguishing 
marks that may be upon it or in it. 1 

They will then make applications to the 
General Baggage Agent, givingthe above facts 
with the numbers of the checks, and inform him 
where the baggage should be sent. 

When they receive checks from passengers 
to send for baggage, they must be particular to 
give the name of the owner of the baggage, the 
description and marks upon the baggage and 

I. “ If baggage or pieces of baggage are missing on arrival 
at destination the passenger will at once notify the agent, 
giving number and weight of missing pieces. In exchange 
for the receipt delivered up by the passenger the agent must 
give the passenger a certificate stating number and weight of 
missing pieces.”— Roman Railway, 1872. 

“Persons applying for missing luggage should be asked 
for full particulars of their luggage and contents, name of 
owner, with any other names or addresses that may be either 
in or on it, and date on which it was lost.”— Reg. Clearing 
House , Eng. 


Baggage Oar Traffic . 


199 


the route by which the passengers traveled. 
In the event of there being more than one 
passenger, the number of passengers must be 
given. 

“ When luggage is forwarded to some other 
station for inspection, or otherwise, the station 
to which it has been forwarded is to be fully 
advised by the forwarding station ; for whom, 
and why sent. Articles forwarded from one 
station to another for inspection, must, if not 
claimed, be at once returned to the station from 
which they were sent..” 1 

LOST CHECKS. 

When claims are made for baggage by parties 
who have lost their checks, the baggage must 
not be delivered until it has been fully 
identified. The claimant must be required to 
mention some of the leading articles of contents, 
produce the key to the baggage, open the same, 
and finally pay to the agent making the delivery, 
fifty cents, the price of the lost check, and at 
the same time give a receipt for the baggage to 
the agent. The receipt must be dated and must 
embody a complete description of the property, 
including the number of the missing check. 
The receipt and strap check must be inclosed 
to the office of the General Baggage Agent to 


I. Reg. Clearing House, Eng. 


200 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


be filed and preserved ; the money must be for¬ 
warded as in other cases. 1 

UNCLAIMED BAGGAGE. 

Agents who receive orders to forward 
unclaimed baggage must send a copy of each 
order to the general baggage office unless the 
order is signed by the General Baggage Agent. 
In all cases they must notify the General 
Baggage Agent of any distinguishing marks on 
unclaimed baggage when it is received by them. 

They must make a report on Saturday of each 
week of all unclaimed baggage and parcels at 
their stations, giving numbers of checks, and 
when not checked, a description of baggage or 
property, and send it to the General Baggage 
Agent on the first passenger train. 2 

When baggage has remained unclaimed thirty 
days at stations it must be sent to the General 
Baggage Agent, or elsewhere as he may direct, 
with an estray card attached stating the date 
when baggage was left at station and where it 
came from. At the same time the General 

1. “ In default of a receipt proving ownership, parties must 
prove ownership and must give a receipt, or bond of indem¬ 
nity according to circumstances, before baggage will be 
delivered to them. As a rule, baggage must be surrendered 
only at those stations to which it is billed. But if tax and duty 
regulations allow, it may be surrendered at a prior station, 
upon the return of the receipt .”—Regulations Austrian Roads , 
1877. 

2. All lost or unclaimed baggage left at any station, must 
be immediately entered in a book for the purpose, and re¬ 
ported to the Superintendent.”—1853. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


201 


Baggage Agent must be fully advised of the 
facts by letter. 1 

BAGGAGE CAB. TRAFFIC. 

When passengers have more than one piece 
of excess baggage (i. e. baggage coming under 
the head of “ baggage car traffic,”) each piece 
must be checked with a baggage traffic check. 

Agents must be especially careful in pre¬ 
venting baggage traffic way-bills from being- 
taken from baggage by interested paities. 

Baggage or parcels to which baggage traffic 
way-bills are attached, must not be given up 
until the owner has paid the charges on same. 

An expense bill (receipt) must be filled up 
and kept on file by the agent for all unpaid 
charges on baggage car traffic. 

MISCELLANEOUS INSTRUCTIONS TO AGENTS. 

Agents will collect and report storage at tariff 
rates when baggage is not taken away within 
the time specified in said tariff. 

They will also collect and report the fee pre¬ 
scribed on all parcels, bundles, etc., left tem¬ 
porarily in their charge. 

i. “Station masters are particularly requested to have a 
periodical examination of the cloak or left luggage room, 
cases having occurred in which lost luggage has been found 
there.”— Reg. Clearing House , Eng. 

“ When owners after notice will not remove baggage in 
store, and likely to be damaged, such baggage will be sold 
without further notice as provided in special conditions. The 
same disposition will be made of baggage if not taken away 
within fourteen days unless otherwise agreed .”—Roman 
Railway. 


202 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


Baggage proper consists of the wearing 
apparel or personal effects of a passenger, one 
hundred pounds of which is allowed to each 
passenger free ; for all over one hundred 
pounds, tariff rates must be charged, except in 
cases otherwise specially provided. 

Jewelry and other valuable goods, unless they 
pertain to the wearing apparel of the passen¬ 
ger, must not be received as baggage. Such 
articles come under the head of express or 
parcel business. If forwarded as baggage car 
traffic a release must in all cases be exacted. 1 

Perishable property must be prepaid and 
will not be received except at the owner’s risk, 
a formal release being exacted in each case by 
the agent the same as for perishable freight. 

A release must also be signed for light 
or fragile articles, such as children’s wagons, 
cradles, cribs, musical instruments, also for 
dogs and other animals. When a release 
is not given double the regular rates should 
be charged. 

The tariff rate for transporting a corpse is 


I. FORM OF RELEASE FOR BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. 


Station,. 187 . 


For and in consideration of the transportation of.. 

by passenger trains from.....to 

..in the same manner as ordinary baggage, I hereby 

release the.company from all responsibility 

for loss or damage to the same or.contents while in said 

company’s charge between the points named. 

. Agent or Owner. 

Check Nos _I_I_I_ 


Charges . $ 











Baggage Car Traffic. 


203 


the price of . . first class ticket. .: the ticket or 
tickets must be delivered with the corpse to the 
train baggageman. 

The casket containing a corpse must be 
inclosed in a box and must be accompanied by 
the certificate of a physician, or officer of the 
Board of Health, that the deceased did not die 
of a contagious disease. 

“ When it is desired to forward a corpse a 
notice of at least six to twelve hours must be 
given. The coffin must be hermetically sealed, 
and must be inclosed in a box; it must be in 
charge of and must be accompanied by a com¬ 
petent person. The papers required b}^ law 
must be made and forwarded and the railroad 
companies’ charges must be made in advance. 
If a corpse should be delivered, under a 
false statement, to be forwarded as ordinary 
freight, the difference in the charges must be 
paid, and a fine of four times the amount of 
such charges may be exacted. A corpse must 
be removed from the depot within six hours 
after the arrival of the train.” 1 

Agents receiving baggage in bad order from 
connecting roads, or from passengers, must note 
particulars in ink in regard to the condition of 
the baggage on any receipt they may give for it. 
The use of the words “ bad order ” is not suf¬ 
ficient; full particulars must be given. 

On the arrival of passenger trains at a station, 

i. Regulations Austrian Roads, 1877. 


204 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


agents are expected to give their attention to 
the baggage car first, and transact the neces¬ 
sary business with the train baggagemen before 
attending to any other duties. 

Agents must be careful not to deliver 
checked baggage without receiving a duplicate 
check in return. 1 

All baggage while in their charge must be 
well guarded or kept in a secure place. 

They will be held responsible for the safety 
of all baggage, for the care of checks, and for 
all articles left at their station. 2 

In connection with their other duties they 

1. “ And the porters at King’s Cross are, on the arrival of 
the trains, to take care that the luggage thus labelled is placed 
in the proper bins, or divisions of the barrier on the platform, 
and delivered only to the proper owners. No luggage at King’s 
Cross, or any other station, may be delivered to any one, 
unless the name of the party be first of all ascertained and 
compared with the address on the luggage ; and in case of 
there being no address, the party attending on that passenger 
must ask for some other mode of identification, and if this 
can not be given, he must refer the case to the inspector or 
clerk on duty, and not on his own authority deliver up the 
luggage.”— Great Northern Railway , Eng., 1856. 

“ The check must be demanded when it is deposited at 
the station, or first delivered to the owner.”— 1853. 

“Baggage is delivered by the company on piesentation of 
the receipt, no matter by whom presented.”— Austrian Roads , 

1877. 

“If baggage receipt is not presented at destination, passen¬ 
gers will have to prove property before receiving their bag¬ 
gage.”— Roman Railway. 

2. “ The baggage carriers at the diffe.ent stations are at the 
disposal of passengers, but without responsibility upon the part 
of the railroad company. The carriers must be paid for their 
services, according to a tariff regulating their fees ; they must 
issue receipts for any baggage received by them.”— Austrian 
Roads , 1877. 


205 


Baggage Car Traffic. 

will care for and promptly forward letters and 
packages, on account of the company’s service. 

The utmost expedition must be exercised in 
delivering baggage at destination. 1 

STATEMENTS AND RETURNS REQUIRED OF 
TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN. 2 

They are required to make a report to the 
General Baggage Agent for each train run; this 
report should specify the date, number of train, 
starting point, destination, name of baggage¬ 
man, the number and kind of each check 
attached to baggage, the number of the station 
where baggage was received, and the number 
of the station where left; if no check is 
attached to baggage a description must be 
given. They must commence to write up their 
report promptly at the starting point of the 
train. 

1. “They are to take care that they know where all the 
liiggage for the different stations is put, and they are not to 
wait at the stations to be asked by the various passengers 
alighting for their luggage, but on reaching such stations they 
are personally to attend to the handing out of the various 
packages. The head guards are to see that the luggage is sj 
loaded, that on opening the door of the van at any station, 
they may be enabled at once to see the destination of each 
article. All “long” luggage is to be loaded in the lower com¬ 
partments of the luggage vans, unless placed on the roof of 
the through carriages. All guards are mutually to assist each 
other .”—English Road. 

2. “ When there are more baggagemen than the number of 
trains running, those in waiting at either end of the line wdl 
be at the depots on the arrival and departure of all trains, so 
far as practicable, to aid in making up the departing trains, 
and discharging those arriving.”— Regulations , 1853. 


206 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


The train baggageman is required to make a 
report to the Ticket Auditor of all baggage 
traffic way-bills. The report must specify the 
date of the way-bill, its number, where from, 
where to, the weight of the traffic, the gross 
amount of unpaid local charges, and also the 
gross amount of prepaid charges. 

With the baggage or parcels delivered to 
agents, baggagemasters or train baggagemen 
(as the case may be, by either of the class of 
employes named), a detailed statement must 
be left describing such baggage or parcels. 
The statement must include property belong¬ 
ing to the company. It must be signed and 
must recite the date, number of train, number 
of each check and name of place where 
checked, also name of destination. 

The blank forms of “ Statements of baggage 
delivered ” should for convenience be bound 
in book form. A stub or receipt should be 
attached to each form ; it should recite the 
facts as described above. The stub must be 
receipted by the agent. It is the train bag¬ 
gageman’s voucher for the delivery of the bag¬ 
gage, and it must be retained by him until all 
the statements in the book have been used. 
The receipt or stub must then be forwarded to 
the General Baggage Agent to be filed and pre¬ 
served. This form should also be used, as 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


207 


intimated above, in delivering baggage to bag¬ 
gagemen on connecting trains. 

The reports required by the General Baggage 
Agent may be summarized here as follows: 

1st. Report of failure to deliver baggage at 
proper destination. 

2d. All special information referring to the 
business of the department. 

3d. Any neglect of duty or irregularities 
observed. 

4th. Reports of baggage damaged while in 
care of train baggagemen. 

5th. Notice of permission to change off with 
other baggagemen. 

Train baggagemen are required to transmit 
to the General Baggage Agent promptly at the 
end of each round' trip all reports required of 
them, including the Way-Bills of baggage for¬ 
warded which they may have received ; also all 
Statements of baggage delivered received by 
them from other baggagemen. 

Whenever the train baggageman performs 
any of the duties of an agent, he is required to 
make the same records, returns, and accounts 
that agents are required to make under similar 
circumstances. It is therefore important that 
he should carefully acquaint himself with the 
duties and responsibilities of agents in connec¬ 
tion with the business of the baggage depart¬ 
ment. 


208 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


THE RECEIPT AND DELIVERY OF BAGGAGE 
BY TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN. 

They must not receive baggage or other 
articles (from stations having an agent or 
baggageman) unless it is properly checked. 1 

They must be careful to deliver baggage, 
letters, and parcels at their proper destina¬ 
tion. 2 

“ In case any letter should be marked as 
‘Important,’ or for immediate delivery, they 
must send a porter with it to the proper office- 
as soon as the train stops.” 3 

If by accident or mistake baggagemen fail to 
deliver baggage at its proper destination, they 
must report the failure promptly to the General 
Baggage Agent. 

On arriving at a station they must first 
deliver and receive the baggage for such 
station. 4 

1. “ Fish and game must not be taken into first class car¬ 
riages with passengers, but the guards (baggagemen) must 
take charge of such packages, and hand them out to the 
passengers when they alight. Fish and game, as parcels or 
luggage, must be stowed so as not to injure other articles, or 
annoy any passenger.”— Gt. Nor. Ry., Eng., 1856. 

2. “ They will not be allowed to carry packages of freight of 
any description on their own account, or to receive valuable 
packages or money for transportation, or mail matter in viola¬ 
tion of law, under any circumstances. 

“ They will have charge of the mails carried upon their 
train, when no mail agent is with the train.” — 1853. 

3. Gt. Nor. Ry., Eng. 

4. “ They will, when at stations, immediately after disposing 
of their baggage, examine the journals of their train and see 
that all are in order, keeping in readiness and with them at all 
times, suitable cans of oil to use when necessary.”— 1853. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


209 


In case it is necessary to transfer baggage in 
consequence of accident to train, or for any 
other reason, they must count the number of 
pieces and check them, one by one, into the car 
to which they are to be transferred, seeing that 
none are lost or carried off by passengers or 
others. 

When agents are not on hand to receive 
baggage, the fact must be noted on the returns. 

When baggage is received by baggagemen in 
bad order, they must be particular to note the 
fact on their reports and upon any receipts 
signed by them. 

When baggage is damaged while in their 
possession, full particulars must be entered 
upon the returns. 

RECEIVING AND DELIVERING BAGGAGE BY 
TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN AT STATIONS AT 
WHICH THERE IS NO AGENT. 

They must provide themselves with local 
checks to use at signal stations and stations 
where there is no agent or baggagemaster on 
duty, and if passengers deliver baggage at such 
stations, baggagemen must receive it and at 
once check it to destination, delivering to the 
passenger the duplicate check. 

In all other cases baggagemen are prohibited 


14 


210 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


from receiving or allowing unchecked baggage 
to be placed in their cars . 1 

They will always have their checks in readi¬ 
ness when approaching the stations described. 

If necessary, they must find the owner of the 
baggage that has been checked, after the train 
is in motion, and deliver to such owners the 
duplicates. 

Owners of such baggage must, however, 
identify it in the same way as prescribed when 
checks are lost by passengers. 

When baggage is to be put off at the stations 
described, the duplicates for such baggage should 
be collected before the same is unloaded. 

At stations where there are no agents, they 
must fill up a “ Way-Bill of baggage for¬ 
warded ” and in other respects perform the 
functions of agents, as already directed. 

.SPECIAL DIRECTIONS TO TRAIN BAGGAGEMEN 

IN REFERENCE TO BAGGAGE CAR TRAFFIC. 

They should be especially careful to prevent 
baggage traffic way-bills being taken from bag¬ 
gage while it is in their charge. These way¬ 
bills represent a mone}" value and should be as 
carefully protected as though the}^ were the only 
checks on the baggage. 

The ticket or tickets which the rules require 

I. “ Baggageraasters will allow nothing to go into the 
baggage car, unless checked or way-billed, and accompanied 
by owner.”— N. Y. Road, 1863. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


211 


should be delivered with each corpse, must be 
canceled and turned over to conductor by the 
train baggageman. 

All baggage traffic way-bills destined to 
points where there are no agents should be 
detached by the train baggageman and left with 
the agent at the next station, who will take 
them up in his monthly accounts. 

Train baggagemen are required to keep on 
hand a supply of baggage traffic way-bills, 
books, and returns for use whenever occasion 
requires. It is their duty to bill any baggage 
car traffic which they may for any reason sus¬ 
pect is being carried without a regular way-bill; 
the weight must of necessity be estimated, but 
the way-bill should be so marked. In making 
these bills, they will insert their names in the 
blank with the number of the station from. 
These bills must be reported by them at the 
close of the month, the same as provided for 
agents. 

ATTENTION TO DUTY, CARE OF CAR, ETC., UPON 
PART OF BAGGAGEMEN. 

They are required to be at their cars at least 
thirty minutes before the starting time of the 
train, on their regular runs. Baggagemen must 
be at the depot at the time of starting of the 
train preceding their regular run, and be pre¬ 
pared to go on duty, incase of accident or sick¬ 
ness of the baggageman of the preceding train. 


212 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


While on duty the baggage car is the proper 
place for baggagemen to attend to their busi¬ 
ness. 

They must respect the authority of the con¬ 
ductor, obeying his instructions in all things not 
inconsistent with established rules. 

They will not leave their train to change off 
with other baggagemen without permission from 
the Superintendent, and they must at once 
notif}^ the General Baggage Agent of such per¬ 
mission. 

They must not sleep while upon dut} r . 

At the end of their run they will remain with 
the car until the baggage is delivered, or the bag¬ 
gageman who is to relieve them formally takes 
charge of the car. 

When they leave the car unoccupied, they 
should see that the doors are securely locked. 

All articles carried must appear on the report 
of the baggageman in charge of the car. 

They will be held responsible for loss, or dam¬ 
age to baggage from carelessness on their part. 

They are not allowed to lend the checks 
assigned for their particular use to agents or 
other baggagemen. 

They are required to embody in their reports 
a statement of all special and important facts 
that come to their knowledge that in any way 
relate to baggage. 

They will promptly report to the General 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


213 


Baggage Agent any neglect of duty on the part 
of agents or station baggagemen, or any irregu¬ 
larities that may come to their notice. 

They are prohibited from copying their state¬ 
ments and reports from those made by other 
baggagemen ; they must write up each and every 
account from the baggage. 

The utmost care must be exercised to pre¬ 
vent any accident occurring from fire. Explo¬ 
sive oils must not be used in lighting the car, 
and the stove door must be kept securely fas¬ 
tened when the train is in motion. 

Train baggagemen are expected to perform 
all the duties of the forward brakeman when¬ 
ever the exigencies of the service require it . 1 

No person must be allowed to ride in the 
baggage car without a written permit . 2 

1. “ They will consider themselves to be, and act as brake- 
men when the train is in motion.”— 1853. 

2. “ Passengers must not be allowed to travel in the guard’s 
break van .”—English Standard. 


214 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE EXPRESS OR PARCEL TRAFFIC. 

This traffic is conducted almost wholly 
through the medium of passenger trains and 
does not differ in its class from what we have 
already described as baggage car traffic. 

The peculiar industry that in this country 
is grouped under the head of Express business, 
is designated as the Parcels Traffic, in Great 
Britain. As the carrying of parcels may be 
said to comprise the peculiar features of the 
business, it would seem as if the British desig¬ 
nation were the more proper one, but as these 
parcels are carried in this country under the 
supervision of special messengers, our use of 
the term Express 1 is not inappropriate. 

In Great Britain the guard (conductor) acts 

as the express messenger; he does this in 

addition to his other duties of baggagemaster, 

brakeman, and attendant. There are rarely, if 

ever, more than two guards attached to a train ; 

frequently but one. The tickets are collected 

at the station gate, or at the ticket platform, or 

• 

i. “An express messenger on a train ; a messenger sent on 
a special errand ; a courier; hence a regular and quick con¬ 
veyance for packages, commissions and the like.”— Webster. 

“ That which is sent by an express messenger or message.” 
— K. Charles. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


215 


as the passengers descend from the carriages, 
by agents especially delegated for that pur¬ 
pose ; this plan leaves the conductor compara¬ 
tively free to attend to the reception, care, and 
delivery of the baggage, and parcels intrusted 
to his custody. 

WHAT CONSTITUTES FREIGHT TRAFFIC ? 

The freight business of a road maybe said to 
embrace only the articles that are properly 
transported in freight cars. The articles car¬ 
ried upon passenger trains belong exclusively 
to the department organized for conducting 
the express or parcel traffic; and such traffic 
should, in the main be regulated and carried 
on exclusively by the officials intrusted with 
the conduct of that branch of the transporta¬ 
tion service. All railway servants not 
immediately connected with such branch of the 
business, should be prohibited from discharg¬ 
ing, or attempting to discharge, any of the 
functions or duties connected with it, more 
particularly that part embraced in the carriage 
of valuable packages and the making of collec¬ 
tions. 

NECESSITY FOR THE PARCEL DEPARTMENT— 
ITS TRAFFIC DESCRIBED. 

The organization of the express, or parcel 
traffic, was rendered necessary originally to 
meet the wants of the community for means 


216 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


of transportation, at once safe and expeditious, 
for articles that could not safely be intrusted to 
the clumsy appliances or slow pace of the 
freight or goods department . 1 The most profita¬ 
ble department of the express business perhaps 
is comprised in the collection of notes, drafts, 
and accounts, and in the transportation of gold 
and silver coin, bank notes, currency, deeds, 
contracts, bullion, precious stones, jewelry, 
watches, clocks, gold and silver ware, plated 
articles, costly pictures, statuary, and other 
articles of virtu ; musical instruments, laces, 
furs, silks, china, stained glass, birds and small 
animals of considerable value, delicate fruits, 
etc . 2 

The transportation of the remains of deceased 
persons is an important item to express com¬ 
panies. 

A large revenue is derived by the Express 
companies from the carriage of vegetables and 
other products of the farm and dairy. The 
transportation of fresh fish affords them a con¬ 
siderable income. Many heavy articles of 
comparatively small value are forwarded by 

1. “ Parcels are conveyed by all trains. They must be 
delivered at the respective stations of the company, at least ten 
minutes before the departure of the train they are intended to 
be forwarded by .”—Regulations Midland Railway of Eng¬ 
land. 

2. “Gold and silver bullion, platina, coined and paper 
money, are forwarded according to the special regulations of 
each road. Pictures and works of art, are only taken for 
transportation, if no value has been declared .”—Regulations 
Austrian Roads, 1877. 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


217 


the Express companies, when it is important 
to the owners that the greatest expedition 
should be used. 

The earnings from the transportation of milk 
is considerable upon many lines. The business 
is done almost entirely by passenger trains. 
Upon some lines it is carried in the baggage cars. 
When the traffic is sufficient to warrant it, 
special vans are provided. The cans are brought 
to the city in the morning full and returned 
during the da}^ empty. The charge agreed upon 
for the can when filled is made sufficient to 
cover its return empty. As a rule, the milk 
business is conducted directly by the railroad 
company. The machinery for keeping accurate 
account of the traffic is now practically perfect; 
it consists of consecutively numbered tickets. 
As the size of the cans are not uniform, tickets 
are provided for the various grades. These 
tickets are tied, through an eyelet, to the can, 
and are canceled when torn off. 

The distribution of newspapers, magazines, 
and books is conducted largely through the 
medium of the Express companies, and yields 
them a handsome income. All the great dailies 
find their way to interior cities, towns, villages, 
and hamlets in this way. The business is easily 
handled, and each year adds something to its 
volume. The risk is unimportant. All these 
things conspire to make the traffic especialty 


218 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


desirable to the carrier. Stamps of different 
denominations are sold to the various newsdeal- 
ers by the Express companies; these stamps are 
attached to the packages containing the printed 
matter and are canceled when used. Prompt¬ 
ness is of course one of the chief requirements 
of the business, a delay of a few hours is fre¬ 
quently sufficient to render the property value¬ 
less. The prompt transmission of newspapers 
involves constant watchfulness upon the part 
of the carrier; it involves precision, harmon¬ 
ious action, and efficient service; all these the 
Express companies happily possess. 

“ Newspaper parcels are conveyed at these rates at the 
owners’ risk only, and the rates are from station to station, and 
do not include collection or delivery. The charges for all par¬ 
cels not exceeding twelve pounds in weight must be prepaid by 
label. Parcels above twelve pounds, are charged half ordinary 
parcel rates,with a minimum as for a twelve pounds parcel accord¬ 
ing to the foregoing scale, and the carriage of such parcels may 
be prepaid or charged forward at the option of the sender. The 
company require that the packages shall be open at the ends, 
and contain newspapers only, and that they shall have 
authority to examine them whenever they have reason to 
believe that this regulation is infringed. 

“TABLE OF SCALE OF CHARGES. 


Under 

50 to IOO 

101 to 200 

201 to 300 

50 miles. 

“ Parcels in weight not 

miles. 

miles. 

miles. 

exceeding 1 lb__ 2c. 

4C. -- 

6c. 

8c. 

Above 1 not exceeding 3.. 4 

6 .. 

8 .. 

12 

“ 3 “ “ 6.. 6 .. 

10 .. 

12 

l6 

“ 6 “ “ 12.. 8 .. 

12 __ 

16 

20 


“ 12 # Half the ordinary parcels rates, with 

a minimum as for a 12 lbs parcel, 
according to the foregoing scale. 

“ Periodicals published at intervals not exceeding one month, 
are conveyed at one-half the ordinary parcels rates, with a 
minimum charge of eight cents. These rates do not include 
collection or delivery. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


219 


. “ Periodicals in van loads, not exceeding two tons in weight, 

are charged twelve cents per van per mile, minimum charge 
five dollars ; any excess above two tons will be charged at the 
rate of fifty-eight cents per cwt. up to fifty cwt. 

“ Single newspapers or several copies of newspapers or peri¬ 
odicals published at intervals not exceeding seven days, are 
conveyed between any two stations on the Midland Railway, 
irrespective of distance, at the uniform charge of one cent per 
copy. The charge in all cases to be prepaid by affixing one of 
the company’s labels to each packet. The rates are at owner’s 
risk and do not include collection or delivery. The parcels 
must be open at both ends. Receipts will not be given for the 
parcels. The company will not be responsible for loss, damage, 
or delay, and full parcel rates will be charged in cases where 
these regulations are infringed. Labels varying in value from 
one cent to twenty cents each, to be used for the conveyance of 
single newspapers and newspaper parcels not exceeding twelve 
pounds in weight can be obtained in sheets on application.” 1 

PARCEL RATES. 

Many subtle questions not necessary to dis¬ 
cuss here, enter into the making of rates for 
the transportation and insurance of articles by 
the Express companies. The value of the par¬ 
cel, its character and weight, the distance it is 
to be carried, have all to be thought of. 
Large shippers are entitled to better rates 
than casual customers. The question of bulk 
has also to be considered . 2 

i. Midland Railway Time Table, Jan. 31, 1878. 

2 “ Packages of a light, frail nature, or such as are bulky in 
proportion to their weight, such as paper boxes, containing 
artificial flowers, paper bonnet or hat boxes, straw bonnets, 
packages of lace, pasteboard boxes of light millinery or 
feathers, cases of stuffed birds and animals, driving whips, 
parcels of mouldings, picture frames, light furniture, glass, etc., 
and sewing machines, are charged fifty per cent, increase upon 
the ordinary parcel rate, at company’s risk, and twenty-five 
per cent, increase at owner’s risk ,”—Regulations of Midland 
Ry. of England. 


220 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


SOME OF THE REASONS WHY THE CONDUCT OF 

THE BUSINESS BY COMPANIES ORGANIZED 

FOR THE PURPOSE IS DESIRABLE. 

The conduct of the express business by dis¬ 
tinct companies organized for the purpose, and 
extending over a large section of country, has 
many advantages, as well as disadvantages* 
compared with the conduct of the same busi¬ 
ness when done by the railroad companies. 
The frequent transfers of parcels between com¬ 
panies at the junctions of different roads are 
avoided, the liability of losses can not, therefore, 
be so great, and as the responsibility is more 
direct and explicit in consequence of the con¬ 
centration of the business in a few hands, it is 
reasonable to suppose that the through traffic 
is conducted more expeditiously than it would 
be if it passed through the hands of many dis¬ 
tinct companies. 

While the Express companies are held in 
check by the mercantile classes, and by the con¬ 
centration of rival lines at all the important 
trade centers, they are free from the devastating 
competition that has impoverished so many rail¬ 
roads. They are thus in a position to provide 
proper facilities for conducting the business 
expeditiously, and, at the same time, employ 
competent and adequately paid agents to carry 
it on, and, while doing this, they are still able 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


221 


to return to the proprietors a fair rate of inter¬ 
est on the capital invested by them. 

It is not reasonable to suppose that the 
express traffic, if carried on directly by the 
railroads, could be entirely freed from the 
disturbing elements that so injuriously affect 
all the other important sources of revenue 
which they possess, and until these disturbing 
elements are eliminated or brought under better 
control, the traffic, as now conducted by corpora¬ 
tions distinct from the railroad companies, is 
undoubtedly more secure, and quite as pro¬ 
ductive to the latter, as it would be if con¬ 
ducted directly by them. 

It is possible that the parcel traffic could 
be made a source of greatly increased revenue 
to the railroad companies if systematically 
organized, with a competent head to take 
charge of the business, and enforce the rates 
without reference to the complications of other 
branches of the service. 

SOME COMPARISONS — EXPRESS YS. RAILROAD. 

The salaries which the Express companies are 
compelled to pay their agents, located in the 
various towns, are greater, perhaps, than the 
same men could be employed for by the railroad 
companies. In the majority of cases the agent 
of the latter acts for the former. In some cases 
he is paid a stated salary by the Express com- 


222 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


pany ; in other cases, at the smaller places, he 
receives in lieu of such salary a certain per¬ 
centage of the business of his agency. 

The limited amount of business offering, and 
the necessity of fostering it by liberal rates, 
compels the Express companies to use judicious 
economy in all their expenditures. This is 
especially noticeable in their system of account¬ 
ing. It is at once simple, economical, and 
direct. The looseness and incoherency that 
forms so disagreeable a feature of accounting 
in connection with excess luggage and baggage 
car traffic generally, as conducted by the railroad 
companies, is not observable in the accounts of 
the Express companies. Their charges (express- 
age) are, as a rule, collected at the point of 
delivery to the consignee, the returns of the 
agent at such place being checked and verified 
by th'e accounts of the forwarding agent. 
Shipments are rarely if ever made unless ac¬ 
companied by a way-bill, and the officials of 
the company are not, fortunately for the stock¬ 
holders,” guilty of the weakness and imbecility 
of habitually permitting goods to go free lest 
some other company should do so. 

MAKING COLLECTIONS. 

As already stated, the Express companies 
undertake, in connection with the transporta¬ 
tion of packages, to collect notes, drafts, and 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


928 

accounts through their agencies. This feature 
of their business is a great convenience to mer¬ 
chants, bankers, and others who have debts due 
to them at places where there are no general 
agencies through whom accounts may be 
collected. 

The collection of debts contributes a con¬ 
siderable revenue to the Express companies, 
and it is worked by them with the industry 
and intelligence that characterizes every thing 
they do. 

In making collections the Express company 
acts under the immediate instructions of the 
party employing it. 

In investigating the workings of the parcel 
traffic we find that many of the articles carried 
are, under direction of the sender, made 
“ Collect on Delivery ,51 of the goods. 

I. C. O. D. In such cases the invoice or bill (inclosed in 
an envelope) should accompany the property. When collec¬ 
tions are to be made it is required that the amount to be 
collected shall be marked on the way-bill, and on the property 
and envelope as well. Sometimes the property is subject to 
the inspection of the consignee. If refused it is customary 
(unless instructed to the contrary) to notify the forwarding 
office (holding the property meanwhile), so that the sender 
maybe consulted as to its disposition. 

“ When a consignee can not be found, or refuses to receive 
parcels which have been booked to him, the sender shall be im¬ 
mediately advised, and the parcels are not to be returned to the 
sending station until the sender’s instructions have been 
received. If the consignee tenders a consignment, ordering the 
parcels to be returned, or otherwise disposed of, he must first 
pay the carriage, and sign the delivery book, otherwise his con¬ 
signment must not be accepted. In the case of fish, fruit, and 
other perishable articles, when consignee can not be found, or 


224 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


Under this arrangement the owner of the 
property is definitely secured against loss, and the 
express company not only derives revenue from 
the transportation of the property but its earn¬ 
ings are further increased by the charges on 
the return remittance. 

When directed to that effect the collecting 
agent not only exacts pay from the consignee 
for the value of the property and the express- 
age thereon, or for collecting the note, draft, or 
account, as the case may be, but he also collects 
enough to cover the company’s charge on the 
return remittance . 1 

The Express companies require that the iden¬ 
tical money collected by the agent shall be 

refuses to accept them, it is the duty of the receiving station to 
sell them immediately, and any company returning such articles 
to sending station, shall be held responsible for all loss arising 
from such a course of action.”— Reg. Clearing House, Eng. 

I. When the charges are to be paid on the return remittance 
by the original sender, the way-bill and envelope are made to 
read “ P. O. R.” (i. e. the return charges will be paid by the 
sender of the note or property). In returning proceeds to the 
forwarding office way-bills and packages are marked “ Pd. 
Coll.” (i. e. this is the proceeds of a collection) or “ Pd. Coll. 
C. O. D.” When the agent is for any reason unable to make 
the desired collection he returns the article, note, draft or 
account, to the forwarding office noting on the bill “ Ret. Coll.” 
In cases of this kind a reasonable charge is made for the 
expense and trouble the company has been put to. When the 
return charges are collected of the consignee such charges are 
usually retained by the agent making the collection and the 
exact proceeds of the property, note, draft or account, is 
returned to the sender, the express company’s charges on such 
proceeds being entered on the way-bill as prepaid. When the 
expressage is to be paid by the original owner of the property 
(“ P. O. R.”) the way-bill reads unpaid. 


Baggage Ca r Traffic . 


225 


remitted. The responsibility thus becomes fixed, 
and in the event counterfeit money is paid to the 
agent it can be definitely traced. 

In making collections, the express agent acts 
as the immediate agent of the person employing 
the Express compan} 7 , and he must, in all 
respects, carry out the wishes of such person, 
protesting paper in legal form when required, 
and performing all other necessary and proper 
acts that may be requisite to protect the inter¬ 
ests of his patron. 

OFFICIALS MUST RECEIPT FOR PROPERTY. 

Agents are, or should be, required in all 
cases, to give a receipt specifying the value of 
each and every package received by the com¬ 
pany for transportation. This rule is necessary 
to protect the company against excessive claims- 
in the event property is lost, and, what is quite 
important, persons can not present fraudulent 
claims against the Express company on the plea 
of having delivered property to it for which it 
gave no receipt or other evidence of possession 
in return. 

THE WORKING ORGANIZATION. 

A general supervision of the business of the 
Express companies is exercised by Division 
Superintendents, much as the local affairs of 
railroad companies are looked after by corre- 
15 


226 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


sponding officers. The Division Superintendent 
has immediate charge of the servants of the 
company, regulates their salaries, adjusts claims, 
and performs many important functions corre¬ 
sponding to those of Traffic Manager. 

The property of the company, including the 
valuables intrusted to it, is under the immediate 
care of the agents at the various stations, and 
they are responsible to the company for its safe 
custody. • 

The companies employ experts called Route 
Agents, whose duty it is to examine from time 
to time the affairs of the various agencies, and 
see that their accounts are kept in accordance 
with the prescribed form, and that they duly 
account for all moneys coming into their pos¬ 
session. 

The servant of the company who has imme¬ 
diate charge of the property intrusted to it 
while it is being transported from the point of 
shipment to the place of destination is called a 
Messenger. He receipts to the agents for the 
property they deliver to him at the various sta¬ 
tions and exacts a similar receipt for the prop¬ 
erty turned over to them by him . 1 

i. “It is the duty of the guards to ascertain that the parcels 
delivered to them for transmission, as well as all carriages, 
horses, dogs, cattle, etc., correspond with the entries on the 
way-bills handed to them, and to report, specially, to the Super¬ 
intendent all irregularities. They must count the parcels, and 
compare them as far as the time will allow, with the way-bills ; 
and at their arrival at each station they must count out the par- 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


227 


GOOD FAITH BETWEEN MAN AND MAN AN 
IMPORTANT ELEMENT. 

The work is performed with so much celerity 
at the stopping places of trains, in conse¬ 
quence of the limited time allowed for deliver¬ 
ing and receiving property, that the receipts 
that pass betwen the agent and the messenger 
are receipts in name only. They virtually 
receipt for the number of way-bills 1 delivered 

cels to be left there, and they must, themselves, give them to 
the persons appointed to receive them, and at the end of the 
journey the guard must remain at the station and count out his 
parcels, and give every assistance in the transfer of them to the 
parcels officer, whose signature he must at once obtain for their 
proper receipt; the guard is held responsible for the parcels 
intrusted to him at the time of starting and during the jour¬ 
ney.”— Gt. Nor. Ay., Eng. 

i. Way-Bill of Blank Express Company. 


(Messengers must register their names in rotation across the outside of 
this way-bill.) 

No . To . From ...187. . 


No. Pkg’s. 

Weight. 

Value of 
Package. 

From 
whom re¬ 
ceived. 

To whom 
Addressed 

Destina¬ 

tion. 

Charges 

Advanced. 

Unpaid 

Local 

Charges. 

Total. 

Prepaid 

Charges. 

Remarks. 

! 

















This form of way-bill is used by both agents and messen¬ 
gers. 

Money way-bills in some cases, have the word “Money 
printed upon them, but in other respects they are the same as 
the form described above, except that the column for weight is 
omitted. A different colored ink is, for convenience, sometimes 
used. 

The duplicate or memorandum bill used by messengers and 





















































228 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


by them respectively, and if the articles are not, 
upon subsequent examination, found to agree 
with the way-bill, explanations are demanded by 
the official that has articles in his possession not 
called for by the bill (“over,”) or is “short” 
articles that the way-bill calls for. 

An examination of the workings of the 
express business elicits the fact that good faith 
as between man and man enters very largely 
into all the transactions between the various 
officials of the company. 

As already noticed, the expedition with which 
the business is conducted, renders it impossible 
at the time to methodically compare the articles 
with the receipts which pass between the differ¬ 
ent officials of the compan} T . In every thing 
that is done the element of good faith between 
subordinates, assumes an importance that can 
not perhaps be found in any other business of 
equal magnitude. It thus becomes of the 
utmost importance, not only to the company, 
but to its servants as well, that the greatest care 
should be exercised in introducing new men 
into the service. A rogue may not only seriously 

agents (as described further on) in connection with the traffic 
of half-reporting and non-reporting offices does not differ 
materially from the above form. 

The receipt book, in common use, which the agent or mes¬ 
senger signs (for the way-bills which one delivers to the other) 
gives the name of the official making the delivery, the date num¬ 
ber of way-bill, date of same, whether money or freight, where 
from and where to ; a column is also inserted for the name of the 
party receipting for the way-bills. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


229 


cripple the company by his depredations, but he 
will quite likely bring upright and honorable 
associates into serious and undeserved disre¬ 
pute with their employers. 

ADEQUATE TIME IS ALLOWED FOR ACCOUNTING. 

As greater time is allowed for way-billing and 
accounting for the express or parcel traffic, a 
more elaborate system of accounts is possible 
than the simple form devised for excess lug¬ 
gage and baggage car packages. The commu¬ 
nity understand and cheerfully acquiesce in the 
fact that the immediate forwarding of their 
property by the Express companies is dependent 
upon their allowing the officials a certain mar¬ 
gin of time before the departure of trains, in 
which to perform the clerical work required. 
But as already stated, passengers are not equally 
mindful of the fact that a railroad company is 
also entitled to the time it requires to ascertain 
whether the amount of baggage offered by them 
is in excess of the quantity they are entitled to 
pass free, and in the event that it is, to make a 
way-bill for the same, collect the charge, etc. 

The form of accounts devised for the express 
business seems to conform generally to that 
adopted for conducting the freight traffic of rail¬ 
roads. 


230 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


AGENCIES ARE OF THREE CLASSES—THE DUTIES 

OF MESSENGERS. 

The agencies of some of the more important 
companies are divided up into reporting, half- 
reporting', and non-reporting offices. The first, 
regularly way-bills all property forwarded by 
it, and makes returns as often as required of all 
business it may forward or receive. The half¬ 
reporting agency makes returns to the general 
office for either the business forwarded or 
received, as it may be directed to do. If the 
returns are for business received, then no regu¬ 
lar way-bills or returns are made by it for the 
business it forwards, such bills and returns 
being made by the messengers as described 
further on. 

The third or non-reporting office makes no 
returns to the home office, nor does it regularly 
way-bill the traffic it forwards. So far as the 
general accounts and books of the company 
are concerned, the agencies on either side of 
the non-reporting offices receive all business of 
such non-reporting offices. All the business 
forwarded from such offices is delivered to the 
messenger with a memorandum way-bill. From 
this memorandum the messenger regularly 
way-bills the property to its destination. In 
place of inserting the name of the forwarding 
station in the way-bill he inserts his own name. 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


231 


At the end of the week, or as often as required, 
he makes returns to the company (the same as 
an agent) of all way-bills made by him. The 
accounts are thus kept with the messengers 
instead of the non-report ing offices, for all the 
business forwarded by such offices. 

All business destined to non-reporting 
offices is way-billed to the first reporting station 
beyond, but the messenger leaves the property 
with a memorandum or duplicate bill at the 
non-reporting office, and collects the charges of 
the agent at such office at the time of making 
the delivery, or at such subsequent time as may 
be agreed upon. The amount of the charges 
thus collected the messenger leaves with the 
way-bill at the station to which the property 
was billed as described above. 

The same principle of accounting is observed, 
in a restricted sense, at the half-reporting 
offices. Some of these offices report the busi¬ 
ness received, the traffic forwarded being way¬ 
billed and reported by the messenger as already 
described. Others again will way-bill and 
report the traffic they forward, while the busi¬ 
ness they receive will be way-billed to, and 
reported by, the offices on either side of them, 
as before explained. The volume of business 
regulates the class of the agency. 

The effects of the system of half-reporting 
and non-reporting offices is to greatly simplify 


232 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


and reduce the work of the agents at such 
places, while the number of returns received at 
the home office is very materially lessened, and 
in consequence the accounts required to be 
kept upon the general books of the company 
are reduced in number. The system of offices 
described is peculiar to the Express companies. 
Railway officials require direct reports from 
every station where there is an agent. 

As the class or grade of the agencies of the 
Express companies is constantly changing, the 
messengers are required to conform to such 
changes. For instance: If freight should, 
through mistake, be billed to a station that had 
previously been a reporting office, but had been 
reduced to a non-reporting office, the messenger 
would not deliver the way-bill, but would carry 
it to the next reporting office, leaving a 
duplicate bill only with the freight. 

PARCEL TRAFFIC WAY-BILLS. 1 

The system pursued by some of the Express 
companies in numbering their way-bills is 
different from that generally in force upon the 
railroads. The latter commence with number 
one on the first of each month, the bills fol¬ 
lowing each other consecutively until the 
end of the month. The Express companies, 
however," commence with number one on 

I. See illustration of the way-bill on a preceding page. 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


233 


the first of January, and all the bills made 
upon that day are numbered one. All on 
the second day are numbered two, and so on 
through the year. If a day passes without any 
way-bills being made, the number for that day 
is not passed, but the number is continued 
where left off. At the larger stations two 
series of numbers are sometimes enforced, one 
for freight and one for money packages. When 
this practice is pursued one series will com¬ 
mence with number one, while the other series 
will perhaps commence with five hundred. 

In way-billing the express traffic, valuable 
packages, other than those inclosing money, 
are frequently entered upon money way-bills, 
but this is only so when the element of weight 
is of so little importance as practically to cut 
no figure in fixing the rate for transportation 
and insurance. 

“ EXPENSING.” (ADJUSTING DIFFERENCES.) 

Amongst the many make-shifts adopted by 
the Express companies for saving labor, the 
device resorted to for adjusting differences 
between agents, and between the various agents 
and the home office is worthy of notice. Those 
familiar with the manipulation of traffic 
accounts know that the amount entered upon a 
way-bill in the Advanced Charges column is 
credited at the home office of the company to 


234 


Baggage Car Traffic . 


the forwarding agent, and debited to the 
receiving agent. Accordingly, if John Doe, 
Express Agent, owes Richard Roe, Express 
Agent, the latter will make a bill reading from 
his station to John Doe’s station, and insert in 
the advanced charges column of such bill the 
amount of Doe’s indebtedness to him. In the 
same way, if in auditing the accounts at the 
home office an agent is found in error, the error 
is corrected by making a way-bill on the agent, 
or vice versa. The technical term “ Expens¬ 
ing ” is generally used by the Express com¬ 
panies to designate the peculiar form of trans¬ 
action described above. Bankers would perhaps 
call it “drawing.” 

SEASON CONTRACTS. 

Contracts are entered into by the Express 
companies, with railways, bankers, merchants, 
and others, by which the former agree to trans¬ 
port the express matter of the latter, for a 
specified sum for a stated quantity, or for a 
stated season. These are called season con¬ 
tracts, and in way-billing property coming under 
these contracts, the charges column of the bill 
is usually left blank, “ S. C." (season contract) 
being entered under the head of “ Remarks.” 

STATION RECORDS AND RETURNS OF EXPRESS 

TRAFFIC. 

The following are the principal statements 
and accounts kept at ordinary offices, not 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


285 


including those already described. The forms 
will be found to vary somewhat with different 
companies, but the principle remains practically 
the same with all. 

1st. Agents are required to keep a record of 
the notes, drafts, and accounts sent forward 
by them for collection. This record specifies : 
a date sent, b in favor of, c on, d where payable, 
e with, f amount, g when returned, li remarks. 
The column “ when returned,” remains blank 
until the collection has been heard from, con¬ 
sequently the blanks represent at a glance the 
accounts in course of collection. 

2d. The Out Trip Book. This is a record 
book, in which the way-bills for property for¬ 
warded by the different stations, are copied. 
The columns correspond exactly with those of 
the way-bill already given. At the head of the 
page the number of the statement (Balance 
Sheet) that embraces the business that follows, 
is entered for purposes of reference. 

» 3d. The In Trip Book. All way-bills 

received are copied into this book. It corre¬ 
sponds with the Out Trip Book, except that two 
columns are added for “Signature acknowledg¬ 
ing receipt of Package” and “ By whom Iden¬ 
tified.” The signatures in these columns, 
opposite the description of the packages, are 
the evidence of the delivery of the property by 
the Express company. 


236 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


4th. A form of blank which the agent uses 
in giving a receipt for express charges paid. 

5th. Abstract of bills forwarded. The 
name of the office making the abstract is in¬ 
serted at the top, also the time for which the 
abstract is made, and the number of the bal¬ 
ance sheet in which it is included. The col¬ 
umns of the abstract provide as follows: a for 
the number of the way-bill, b its date, c where 
to, d the total amount of the advanced charges 
on the way-bill, e the total amount of the 
Express company’s charges,/ the total amount 
to be collected, and finally a column for “ Pre¬ 
paid” business. The footings of this abstract 
must agree exactly with the Out Trip Book, 
described above. 

6th. Abstract of bills received, including a 
summary, or account current, or balance 
sheet. 1 

I. Abstract of bills received and Balance Sheet, from . 

Office, No . 

Including all Way Bills and Proceeds received previous to % 

..187- 

This abstract forwarded to the General Office on Way Bill 
No . ..Dated .187.. 


No. 

Date. 

From 

When Bill 
is made 
by a Mes¬ 
senger his 
name will 
be enter¬ 
ed in this 
• column. 

Advanced 

Charges. 

Total 

Amount 

of 

Charges. 

Deduc¬ 

tions. 













The amounts of the charges as entered on the way-bills are 







































Baggage Car Traffic. 


237 


The abstract should embrace all way-bills 
received at the station since the date of the 
last return (way-bills for different months, 
never being included in the same abstract); and 
the aggregate footings of such way-bills should 
harmonize with the totals, as shown on the In 
Trip Book. The names of the stations are 
required to be entered in alphabetical order. 
“ Proceeds” has reference to the Summary or 
Balance Sheet, which agents make on this 
blank. It means the balance of cash collected 
since the previous summary, after allowing for 
all proper credits. The Balance Sheet referred 
to embraces a summary of the affairs of the 
agency, since the last return, viz. Debits , a, the 
balance brought forward from the last account 
made up of uncollected charges, cash, etc.; b , 
the total unpaid charges on way-bills, as 
shown by the abstract of bills received; c, the 
amount of “Prepaid” charges collected on 
business forwarded. Credits , <7, the total 
amount of charges advanced on bills forwarded; 
e , the total amount of cash remitted to the 
home office ;/, the amount of the “ Deductions” 
as explained upon the way-bills, and entered 
on the abstract of bills received; g , the total 

frequently incorrect. If the amount entered is too much, the 
excess is generally entered herein, in the column headed “Deduc¬ 
tions.” This column serves as a Clearing House for agents to 
adjust the overcharges of their stations in accoi'dance with the 
facts. A full explanation of each deduction is required to be 
made upon the way-bill. 


288 


Baggage Car Traffic. 


amount of charges remaining uncollected, at 
the time of making the return ; 7^, the amount 
of Voucher, or Vouchers, for services of 
employes paid out of the proceeds of the 
agency. The number of items appearing in the 
account current, increase or decrease as the 
agency increases or decreases. The exact 
amount due the company, and necessary to 
balance the account of the station, is required 
to be transmitted to the home office at the time 
of making the return. The Balance Sheets are 
numbered, commencing with number one, on 
the first of January, in each year. 

7th. A Statement Book is kept at each 
station, upon which the agent makes a copy of 
the abstracts already described, including the 
general balance sheet of the agency. 



INDEX. 


to pro- 


Abbreviations used by Express Companies 
Abolition of Payment of Commissions . 

Abstract of Express Way-bills forwarded 
Abstract of Express Way-bills received 
Accounting for Baggage Car Traffic 

“ “ “ “ “ not difficult 

vide a proper system for 
“ the Proceeds of Baggage Car Traffic 
“ Traffic passed without Cash Payments 
Accusations made against Baggagemen 
A cozy chair in the Baggage Car 
Action of Frost upon Roadbed 

Adequate Time Allowed Express Companies for Ac¬ 
counting , 

Agencies of a Company made Depositaries for Parcels 

Ancient and Modern Times, Highways of . 

Arrangement of Baggage in Car . ... 

Associations of Baggage Car .... 

Attention to Duty on part of Baggagemen 
Attractions of Farm Life .... 

Austria, Billing of Baggage in . . 

Austrian Railroad Baggage Traffic Way-bill 
Austrian Regulations in reference to Corpses 
Austria, quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 
“ Responsibility in for baggage lost or damaged . 

“ Storage charged in 
“ What constitutes baggage in 
Bad Order, receiving baggage in 
Baggage billed through in Europe 
Baggage Car, care of .... 

“ Car, the contents of 

“ “ Traffic, accounting for 


Page. 
223, 224, 234 

. IOI 

236 

236 

152 

133 
175 

169 

35 

18 

7 

229 
87 

1 

33 
16 
211 

23 

79 
174 
203 

5* 
61 

85 

44 
203 
82 
211 
16 

152, 175 



240 


Index. 


Page. 

B a gg a g e C a r Traffic Check . . . • 7 '* 


“ “ “ Directions to a gents in reference to 201 

“ “ “ Forwarded, Monthly Abstract of 177 

“ “ “ Must be way-billed prepaid when de- 



sired by shipper . 

. 157 

«« 

“ “ Neglect of by responsible a nd direct- 


ing officials 

1* ’7 

ii 

. “ “ Obst a cles in the w a y 

108 

i i 

“ “ Receipt . 

1S3 

44 

“ “ Received, monthly abstract of 

179 

(« 

“ “ Special directions to train baggagemen 210 

14 

“ “ Uncollected charges on 

CO 

it 

“ “ W a y-bill . 

154,155 

ii 

Checking Compulsory in the U. S. 

77 

a 

Check, inter-road . 

75 , 76 

a 

“ local .... 

• 7 L 73 

a 

Cost of transporting 

55 

a 

Decisions of Courts . 39, 45, 57, 

63, 64, 77 

a 

Dep a rtment, Instructions in reference to reguDr 


business .... 

co 

i i 

Extra, difficulty of enforcing clmrges for 

117 

«( 

Extra, reluctance to p a y for 

120 

i i 

0 

How billed in other countries 

78 

i i 

Insurance of by railw a y comp a nies 

83 

<4 

Lost, fraudulent cHims for . 

67 

a 

Lost or d a m a ged, responsibility for 

57 

i t 

Munipulntion of ... 

70 

ii 

“ “ in Grea.t Brita.in 

7 i 

B a gg a geme n , the Train . 

33 

Baggage of Commercial travelers 

54 

ii 

Of Emigrants . 

53 

ii 

Permit .... 

147 

ii 

Primitive mode of hzindling 

7 i 

ii 

Qimntity tha.t m a y be transported free 

5 » 

i i 

Quuntity tha.t mny be trnnsported free in 

other 


countries . . . . 

51 

ii 

Storage of 

. 83 

4 i 

Traffic check . 

73 




Index. 


Ba.gg a g e Traffic to and from foreign roads 
Unaccompanied by owner . 

What constitutes in Austria 
“ England 
“ France 
“ Ireland 
“ Italy 
“ Spain . 

“ “ the United States 

Balance Sheet used by Express Companies . 
Ballast, bes't kind of 
Billing of Baggage in other countries 
Business Car, the . 

Care of Car upon part of Baggagemen 
Care of Checks by Agents 
Characteristics of Train Baggagemen 
Characteristics of Train Boy 


241 

Page. 

• 165 

49 
44 
42 

42 

43 

43 

44 

39 
237 

6 
78 
15 
211 

• 194 
35 
25 

Charges for Commercial Travelers’ Baggage in England 143 
Check for Baggage Car Traffic ... 73 

Check for Inter-road Business . . . . 75, 76 

Check for Local Business . . . 71,73 

Checking Baggage . . . . • . 72 

Checking Baggage compulsory in the U. S. . . 77 

Check on Issue of Season Passes, Permits, etc. . .138 

Claims for Overcharges—to whom referred . . 168 

Classes of Express Agencies .... 230 

C. O. D. . . . . . . 223 

Collection by Express Companies . . . 222 

Collection, Record of Notes, etc. sent for . . 235 

Collections should be made by Rece ving Agent . 135 

Commercial Travelers .... 143 

Commercial Travelers’ Baggage . . .54 

Commissions, Abolition of . . . 101 

“ Bring no increased business . . 104 

“ Class of men who have fastened them 

upon Railway Companies . • 97 

“ Effect of practice . . . 100 


16 





242 


Index. 


Page. 

Commissions, Manner of paying ... 99 

“ Something about them . . .93 

“ Views of A. V. H. Carpenter respecting 102 

Views of Samuel Powell respecting . 103 

“ Why are they paid ? . ' . ,95 

Competition, effect of on Baggage Car Traffic . 104 

Compulsory checking of Baggage in the U. S. . 77 

Construction of Railways, manner of 5 

Construction of Roman Highways, manner of . . 4 

Contents of Baggage Car ... .16 

Cost of Transporting Baggage . . 7 55 

Coupon Mileage Ticket .... 143, 146 

Coupon Mileage Ticket, how used . . 144 

Coupon Mileage Ticket, how its use may be increased 149 
Courts, decisions of in reference to Baggage 39, 45, 57, 63, 64, 77 
Damaged Baggage, responsibility for . . 57 

Decisions of the Courts in reference to Baggage 

39, 45, 57, 63. 64, 77 

Depositaries for Parcels at agencies . . 87 

Description of Coupon Mileage Ticket . . . 146 

Description of Parcel Traffic . . . 215 

Designation of Baggage Car Traffic in England . 214 

Difference in Manner of Construction between the Ro¬ 
man Roads and Modern Railways . . 4 

Difficulty of enforcing Charges for Extra Baggage . 117 

Directions for Checking Baggage . . .194 

Disposition of Way-bills, Passes, etc, . . 137 

Dogs, rates charged for in England . . .41 

Dust, effects of upon Machinery ... 7 

Duties of Express Messengers . . . 226, 230 

Duties of Express Route Agents . . . 226 

Duties of Train Baggagemen . . . *33 

Effect of competition on Baggage Traffic . . 104 

Effect of practice of paying commissions . . 100 

Emigrant Business, through . . . 127 

Emigrant, peculiarity of ..... 127 

Emigrants’ Baggage . . . . . 53 


Index. 


243 


Page. 

England, Charges for Commercial Travelers’ Baggage in 143 


(( 

Designation of Baggage Car Traffic in 

214 

<4 

Luncheon Baskets provided in 

151 

44 

Newspaper Parcel Rates in 

218 

44 

Quantity of Baggage that may be transported 


free in . 

52 

44 

Rates charged for Dogs in 

41 

u 

Storage charged in 

84 

44 

What Constitutes Baggage in 

42 

Errors, 

notice of . . . 

185 

Evolution of Railways .... 

8 

Excess Baggage Customs here and abroad . 

106 

< 4 

Local Baggage .... 

• 134 

44 

Luggage of ordinary inter-road passengers . 

J 3 r 

Excessive Claims for Lost Baggage 

67 

Excursion, the ..... 

11 

“ Expensing” (adjusting differences) 

• 233 

Express Agencies, of three classes 

230 

44 

Agents’ Statement Book 

238. 

u 

Balance Sheet .... 

237 - 

4 i 

Business conducted by Railway Companies 

in 


Europe ..... 

47 

4*4 

Charges, Receipt for 

236* 

44 

Companies, Abbreviations used by 

224 

44 

“ Classes of Agencies 

230 

44 

“ Making Collections 

222 

4 4 

“ Receipt for Charges 

236 

44 

“ Receipt for Property . 

225 

4 4 

“ Records and Returns 

• 234 

4 4 

“ Require adequate time for accounting 229 

44 

“ System of accounting 

230 

44 

“ What they transport 

216 

4 4 

“ Working Organization of . 

225 

44 

In Trip Book .... 

235 

44 

Messengers, Duties of . 

226, 230 

U 

Offices, “half-reporting” 

230, 231 

44 

“ “non-reporting” 

230, 231 

4 4 

“ “reporting” 

230 


16* 




244 


Index. 


Page. 

Express or Parcel Traffic, the . . . .214 

“ Out Trip Book .... 235 

“ Route Agents, Duties of 226 

“ Season Contracts .... 234 

“ Station Records and Returns . . . 234 

“ vs. Railroad, some comparisons . . 221 

“ Way-bill .... 227, 232 

“ Way-bills forwarded, Abstract of . . 236 

“ Way-bills received, Abstract of . . 236 

Extra Baggage Passes . . . . 136 

“ “ Rates . . . . .113 

Fair dividends, Railway property entitled to . 112 

Farm life, Attractions of . . . . .23 

Foreign Roads, Baggage Traffic to and from . 165 

Former treatment of excess baggage collections by sea¬ 
board lines ..... 128 

Form of Receipt for Money Collected . . .183 

“ Release for Baggage Traffic . . 202 

“ Way-bill to be used . . . . 153 

Forms 73, 76, 154, 155, 162, 170, 172, 174, 177, 179, 183, 184, 

185, 202, 227, 236 

France, Quantity of baggage that may be earned free in 51 
“ Responsibility in, for baggage lost or damaged « 59 
“ Storage charged in . . . 84 

“ What constitutes baggage in . .42 

Fraudulent claims for lost baggage ... 67 

Freight Traffic, What constitutes . . .215 

Frost, Action of, upon track .... 7 

Furniture of Baggage Car . . . .16 

“ Business Car . . . . 15 

General Baggage Agent, the . . . .115 

General Instructions to Agents and Train Baggagemen 188 
Germany, Quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 51 
Good faith between man and man an important element 

in the express business .... 227 

Great Britain, Billing of baggage in . . . 78 

“ “ Mode of handling baggage in .71 



Index. 


245 


Great Britain, Quantity of baggage that may be trans¬ 
ported free in 

responsibility in, for baggage lost or 
damaged 

“ “ What constitutes baggage in 

Habitues of Baggage Car 
“ Half-reporting ” Express Offices . 

Harassed and perplexed Agent, the 

Highways of Ancient and Modern times 

Hospitality of a Railway Company 

How baggage is billed in other countries 

How the Coupon Mileage Ticket is used 

How the use of the Mileage Ticket may be increased 

Imperative need of reform 

Importance of good faith between man and man in the 
express business .... 

Inequalities that exist .... 

Injury done to Railways by unscrupulous politicians 
Instructions in reference to regular business of the 
Baggage Department 
Instructions to Agents in reference to 
Baggage Car Traffic 
Care of Checks 
Checking Baggage 
Lost and Estray Baggage 
Lost Checks .... 

Miscellaneous matters 
Receiving baggage in bad order . 

Release for Baggage . 

Statements and Returns required of them 
Unclaimed Baggage .... 
Instructions to Train Baggagemen in reference to 

Attention to duty .... 
Baggage Car Traffic . 

Care of Car ..... 
Receipt and delivery of baggage 
Receiving and delivering baggage at stations at 
which there are no agents 


Page. 


52 


58 
42 
18 

230, 231 
121 

I 
II 

78 
144 
149 
139 


227 

109 

9 

187 

201 

194 

194 

198 

T 99 

201 

203 

202 
191 
200 

211 

210 

211 

208 

209 


Statements and Returns required of them . 205, 207 



246 


Index. 


Page. 

Insufficiency of time allowed for accounting, a cause of 

demoralization . . . . . 125 

Insurance of baggage by Railway Companies . . 83 

Inter-road Check, the . . . • 75» 7^ 

“ Passenger and his Baggage . . . 92 

“ Passengers, Excess Luggage of . . 131 

Intimidation of officials ..... 117 

In Trip Book (Express) .... 235 

Irate patron, the ...... 123 

Ireland, Storage charged in . . . . 84 

“ What constitutes baggage in . . 43 

Is the conduct of the Parcel Business by companies 

organized for the purpose desirable ? . . 220 

Issue of Passes, Permits, etc., Check on . . 138 

Italy, Billing of baggage in . . . .80 

“ Letter from, in reference to baggage . . 80 

“ Quantity of baggage that may be carried free in . 51 

“ Responsibility in, for baggage lost or damaged 60 

“ Treatment of baggage in . . . . 190 

“ What constitutes baggage in . . . 43 

Law of supply and demand . . . .110 

Letter from Italy in reference to baggage . . 80 

'Life in the Baggage Car . . . . .17 

Limit of responsibility for baggage lost or damaged 63 

List of uncollected charges on baggage car traffic . 183 

Local Baggage Check . . . . 71, 73 

Local Checks, Manner of supplying Agents with . 74 

Lost and Estray Baggage .... 198 

Lost Checks ...... 182, 199 

Lost or Damaged Baggage, Responsibility for . . 57 

Luncheon Baskets provided by English Railway Co.’s 151 

Machinery, Effects of dust upon ... 7 

Magnitude of railway affairs .... 9 

Making collections ..... 222 

Manipulation of Baggage . . . .70 

Manner of conducting inter-road passenger business 92 

“ Constructing ancient highways . . 4 


Index. 


247 


Manner of constructing railways 
“ Paying commissions . 

Memorandum Book of Traffic Forwarded . 

Way-bill of Baggage Car Traffic 
Men who destroy values and precipitate railroad wars 
Messenger, Express, Duties of . 

Methods of advertising .... 
Mileage Coupon Ticket .... 

,, “ “ How used 

Mileage Ticket, how its use may be increased . 
Miscellaneous instructions to agents . 

Modern Highways, Construction of 
“ “ Durability of 

Monthly Abstract of Baggage Car Traffic Forwarded 

“ “ “ Received 


i t ( t 


Page. 

5 

99 
184 
. 162 

86 

226, 230 
90 

143, 146 
441 
. 149 

201 

5 

8 

. 177 

179 


Necessity for the Parcel Department 
Necessity of a porous roadbed 

Neglect of Baggage Car Traffic by responsible and 
directing officials .... 

News Agent, the, Characteristics and peculiarities of . 
Newspaper Parcel Rates in England 
Newspapers carried by Express Companies . «. 

No increased business brought by commissions 
“ Non-reporting” Express Offices . . 230,231 

Not difficult to provide a proper system of accounting 133 

Notice of errors ...... 

Objections to the reorganization of the Baggage Depart- 
ment • • • • • • • 

Obstacles in the way of a thorough conduct of baggage 

car traffic ...... 108 

Officers’ Car, the . . . . . 15 

Officials must receipt for property . . . 225 

Out Trip Book (Express) .... 235 

Overcharge claims, to whom referred . . . 168 

Parcel Department, Necessity for . . 215 

“ Rates ...... 219 

“ Traffic, the ..... 214 


215 

6 

107 

25 

218 

217 

104 


185 


141 


248 


Index . 





Parcel Traffic Way-bills . 

Passes, Check on issue of 
“ Disposition of 
“ For Extra Baggage . 

Peculiarities of Train boy 
Peculiarity of Emigrant 
Perfection of system of handling baggage 
Period of evolution of railways 
Permits, Check on issue of 
Primitive mode of handling baggage 
Pocket Memorandum Book of Baggage Car Traffic 
Forwarded 

Political abuse of railways 
Popular officer, the 
Popular prejudices against railways 
Power of Railway Companies 

Proper system of accounting, not difficult to provide 
Property must be receipted for by Express Agents 
Public Highways of Ancient Rome 
Quantity of baggage that may be transported free 
By Commercial Travelers. 

By Emigrants .... 

In Austria ..... 

In France .... 

In Germany .... 

In Great Britain 

In Italy ..... 

In Russia .... 

In the United States 
Railroad wars, The men who precipitate 
Railway Companies, magnitude of their affairs . 

“ “ Their hospitality 

“ “ Their power 

“ Property entitled to a fair dividend 
“ Roadbed, Manner of constructing 

“ The great modern highway . 

Rates charged for dogs in England 


Page. 

227, 232 
138 


137 
136 

25 

127 

77 

8 

138 
7 i 

184 

9 

118 

8 

9 

133 

225 

2 

50 
*54 
53 

51 
5 i 

5 1 

52 
5i 

51 

52 
86 

9 

11 

9 

112 

5 

2 

4 i 







Index. 


249 


at 


Rates charged for Extra Bag-gape 
“ For Parcels 

Receipt and delivery of Baggage by Train Baggage¬ 
men ...... 

Receipt for Express Charges 
Receipts must be given for all moneys collected 
Receiving Agent, collections should be made by 

And Delivering Baggage at Stations 
which there is no agent 
Baggage . . 

“ Baggage in bad order 
Record of notes, etc., sent for collection 
Reform, imperative need of 
Regular business of Baggage Department, instruction 
in reference to ... 

Regulations of Roman railway 
Release for baggage car traffic 
Reluctance to pay for Excess Baggage 
Reminiscences of a special train 
Reorganization of the Baggage Department, objections to 
“ Reporting ” express offices 
Responsibility in other countries for Baggage Lost or 
Damaged ...... 

Responsibility of railways in the U. S. for Baggage Lost 
or Damaged ..... 

Responsibility of railways, Decisions of Courts 
Returns required of agents 

Revenue that may be derived from Storage of Parcels 
Reversible or Inter-road Check 
Roadbed of railways, how constructed . 

Roads of Ancient Rome, durability of 
Roman Railway, Regulations of 
Rome, Ancient, Public Highways of 
Route Agents, duties of .... 

Russia, quantity of baggage that may be carried free in 
Safeguards must be provided to secure efficiency and 
prevent fraud . . . , . 


Page. 

113 

219 

208 
236 
183 
135 

209 
193 
203 
235 
139 

187 

81 

202 

120 

11 

141 

230 


58 
57 

57, 63, 64 
191 
87 
75 , 76 
5 
2 
81 
2 

226 
5i 


66 



250 


Index. 


Seaboard lines, former treatment of Excess Baggage 
Collections by .... 

Season Contracts ..... 
Season Passes, check on issue of . . . 

Should the Express Business be conducted by com¬ 
panies organized for the purpose ? . 

Some Comparisons — Express vs. Railroad 
Something about Commissions 

Spain, Responsibility in for Baggage Lost or Damaged 
“ What constitutes Baggage in 
Special Baggage Traffic Wa*y-bill 

Special Directions to Train Baggagemen in reference 
to Baggage Car Traffic. 

Special Train, the . . , . . 

Speculations as to Ownership of Trunks 
Statement book used by Express Agents 
Statement of baggage delivered by Train Baggagemen 
to Agents ...... 

Statements and Returns required of Agents 
Statements and Returns required of Train Baggagemen 
Station Records and Returns of Parcel Traffic 
Stations at which there is no Agent, Receiving and 
Delivery Baggage at . . . . 

Storage charged by Railways abroad 

“ Of Baggage by Railway Companies 
Of Baggage, Lost Checks, etc. 

Of Parcels, revenue that may be derived from 
Superiority of U. S. system of Checking Baggage 
Supplying Agents with Local Checks 
Supply and demand, law of ... 

System of Checking Baggage 

Of Handling of Baggage perfect 
Required for Storage of Parcels 

To enable a Company to fix the re¬ 
sponsibility for Lost or Damaged Baggage 
The class of men who have fastened the practice of pay¬ 
ing commissions upon the Railway Companies 


Page. 

128 

234 

138 

220 

221 

93 

62 

44 

170 

210 

11 

20 

238 

193 

191 

205 

234 

209 

84 

83 

182 

87 

70 

74 

no 

70 

77 

87 

64 

97 


Index. 


251 


Page. 

Through Emigrant Business .... 127 

Ticket, Mileage Coupon ... . 143, 146 

Traffic passed free, accounting for . . . 169 

Train Baggagemen, ..... 33 

“ Accusations against . . 35 

“ “ Must not sleep on duty . 212 

Receipt and Delivery of Baggage by 208 
“ “ Receiving and Delivering Baggage 

at stations at which there is no 
Agent . . . 209 

“ “ Statements and returns required of 205 

Trainboy, the, characteristics and peculiarities of . 25 

Trans-Continental Baggage — quantity allowed free 54 

Treatment of Baggage in Italy . . . 190 

Unclaimed Baggage . . . . . 200 

Uncollected Charges, list of . . . 183 

United States, checking baggage compulsory in . . 77 

“ “ quantity of Baggage that may be trans¬ 
ported Free in . . .52 

“ “ Responsibility in for Baggage Lost or 

Damaged 

U. S. system of Checking Baggage, superiority of 
Use of Mileage Tickets upon Suburban Trains 
Views of A. V. Carpenter respecting Commissions 
“ “ Samuel Powell respecting Commissions 

Way-bill, Austrian .... 

“ Express or Parcel Traffic 
“ Form of for ordinary use 
“ Memorandum 
Way-bills, Disposition of 
Way-bill, Special 
What constitutes Baggage 

“ “ Decisions of Courts 

“ “ in Austria 

“ “ “ France 

“ “ “ Great Britain 

“ “ “ Ireland 


63 

70 
149 
102 
87. 103 

. 174 

227, 232 

153, 154. 155 
. 162 

137 

170 

39 
39- 4i 
44 

. 42 

. 42 

43 




# 52 * 


Index. 


Page. 

What constitutes Baggage in Italy . . .43 

“ “ “ “ Spain . . 44 

“ “ “ “ United States . . 39, 42 

“ “ Freight Traffic ? . . . 215 

When sufficient time is not allowed for weighing 13S 

“ There is lack of time at Forwarding Station . 162 

Why are Commissions Paid? . . ' . 95 

“ Should Baggage be Transported without Charge? 45 
Working organization of Express Companies . 225 


Marshall M. Kirkman’s 

BOOKS ON 

Railways and their Affairs, 

FOR SALE BY 

CAMERON, AMP.ERG & CO. 

General Agents, 71 and 73 Lake Street, Chicago. 


NOTICES OF THE PRESS . 

“ Railway Revenue” and “ Railway Disburse¬ 
ments.” 

“ The name shows sufficiently that the book is devoted to a 
subject of the utmost practical importance, and we doubt not 
that it is calculated to be of great service to the officers of 
railroad companies — and particularly to those who have not 
had life-long experience in a railroad office. * * * * * 

Another companion volume by the same author and publishers, 
is “ Railway Disbursements,” a work containing direct and 
comprehensive rules for keeping the disbursement accounts of 
a railroad. Mr. Kirkman’s books are welcome as one more 
valuable contribution to the stock of information on practical 
methods of keeping corporation accounts. * * *” 

Com?nercial and Financial Chronicle , New York. 

“ The author of this work is an acknowledged authority on 
the subject upon which he writes. He has brought to the 
study of the science of railroad accounting a mind well fitted 
by nature to grapple with such labor, and which has been 
further adapted by habit and education.”— The Railroader, 
March, 1878. 

“ It seems to us as if the author, with his experiences and 
successful system, has been enabled to write considerately and 
exhaustively upon Ihe topics which he has chosen.”— The Chi¬ 
cago Evening Journal , Nov. 24, I877. 

“ These books of Mr. Kirkman’s are the only books on the 
subject of railway finances and accounts that have ever been 
published. They are written by a railway officer of over twenty 



years’ experience upon one of the greatest railways in the world, 
and ought, therefore, to be especially reliable and trustworthy.” 
St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 

“Each railroad has a method peculiar to itself of keeping its 
accounts ; but these works are, without doubt, of great value 
as books of reference. However different the system of ac¬ 
counts may be on different roads, we apprehend the principles 
that govern the collection of revenue and its disbursements 
must remain practically the same. Hence the undoubted use¬ 
fulness of such works as aids in the solution of new and vexed 
questions. They also enable the student or casual reader to 
take up the subject of railway finances and accounts, and study 
the same intelligently and connectedly as a whole.”— National 
Union , Washington, Dec. 4. 1877. 

“‘Railway Accounts,’ ‘Revenue and Disbursements’ are 
two books from the pen of Marshall M. Kirkman. Mr. Ivirk- 
man appears as the first author upon the methods of railroad 
finance, a subject which has, within the past few years, risen 
to the dignity of a science. The author has improved his great 
opportunities by careful study of the theory and practice of 
railway revenues and disbursements, and the results of over 
twenty years’ practical experience are given to the public in 
the books mentioned, with remarkable conciseness and lucidity. 
Moreover, they are written with a grace and facility of diction 
which fairly entitle them to be received as literature of the first 
class. To those interested in the construction, maintenance, and 
revenue of railways, these books are invaluable, while those 
who may desire to be initiated into the science of railroad 
finance, either for information or practice, will find in them all 
that can be desired. We, therefore, receive with pleasure this 
valuable addition to American class literature, at the same time 
commending Mr. Kirkman for the energy and spirit displayed 
by him in thus sharing with the public the benefits of his long 
experience.”— y. y. Noah , in his paper , Nov. 25, 1877. 


“ Railway Revenue and its Collection.” 

520 Paffes Octavo. Price. $2.50. 

“ Every page of this book proves its author to be possessed 
of two qualifications which very seldom go together. Mr. 
Kirkman is a practical railroad man, and he has collected in 
nine years, by methods which he details at length, $150,000,- 
000 of railway receipts without the loss of a single dollar, 
although he employed in the work some four hundred chang¬ 
ing collectors, agents and clerks. Secondly, our author has the 
ability to tell, in a clear, interesting style, what he wishes his 
readers to know, so that throughout the book the attention is 
kept active and is rewarded. ’— Bankers' Magazine. November 
1877. 



“ The author, Mr. Marshall M. Kirkman, in his book treats 
in a comprehensive and exhaustive manner the very important 
subject with which he deals. The body of the work contains 
much information and instruction valuable to American rail¬ 
way officials, d he appendix also contains a variety of forms 
for railway revenue which must be found peculiarly useful.”— 
Hereapath's ( London ) Ry. and Commercial Journal , September 
20, 1877. 

“ The author of this volume here describes the results of 
many years’ experience in the business organization of Amer¬ 
ican railroads, the collection of their revenues, and the elaborate 
system of book-keeping essential to the accuracy of accounts. 
His work presents a series of minute, and almost exhaustive 
details on the subject, and may be read with interest by all 
concerned in the successful operation of railroads, whether 
officers, employes, stockholders, or creditors.”— New York 
Tribune. 

“ The suggestions of unquestionable sagacity which the 
present author has advanced will be serviceable to many, and 
acknowledged as of value by all who are connected with the 
railway enterprises of our country.”— The Chicago Tribune. 

“ This * * volume sets forth in a very exhaustive form 

the object and extent of railroad accounts and the necessity of 
their being organized on scientific principles. * * *”— The 

New York Bulletin. 

“ A large portion of the book is devoted to a careful descrip¬ 
tion of the characteristics and duties of the operating officers 
of our railways, the relations those officers bear to the accounts, 
and the abuses that are sometimes noticeable in consequence of 
an illy-arranged and practically, irresponsible working organi¬ 
zation.”— The Chicago Times. 

“It contains with much other interesting matter an elaborate 
treatise on the revenue department of our railways. * * * 

Under a system similar in many respects to that shadowed 
forth in this book, $ 150 , 000,000 of railway receipts 
have been collected upon a single railway in the United States 
without the loss of a dollar. * * * This fact is at 

once an evidence and guarantee to railway men that the book 
is not unworthy of their respectful consideration. This work 
with the one already published by the same author on 
‘Railway Disbursements’ form the most complete and 
exhaustive exposition of railroad finances and accounts.”— 
The Chicago Railzvay Review. 

“ The body of the book contains a very large amount of 
useful information drawn from the author’s extended experi¬ 
ence, in regard to the manner of accounting for and collecting 
the revenue of a railway through all the different channels, 
and the propositions are illustrated by over seventy forms of 
blanks.”— The Railway Age. 


“ Railroad men speak well of it and say it gives some sensi¬ 
ble ideas as to how accounts should be made up, how the differ¬ 
ent officers should act. He goes from the dignified President to 
the rollicking General Passenger Agent .”—Detroit Free Press. 


“ Railway Disbursements and the Accounts into 
Which they are Naturally Divided.” 

260 Pages Octavo. Price$2.00. 

“ The minuteness and extent of the details given render any 
attempt at a summarized account of the suggestions and forms 
of accounts utterly impossible ; but they appear to be the re¬ 
sult of considerable practical knowledge, and an immense 
amount of careful thought and consideration. A glance through 
these pages, whatever other information they may convey to the 
uninitiated, at least affords a startling proof of the vast and 
complex scale on which the various items of a railway account 
must be kept .”—London Railway News , April 14, 1877. 

This volume embraces carefully worded instructions in the 
form of concise rules for the government of the various officials 
and agents in reporting to the accounting officer, the Material 
disbursed in operations, the Labor performed by operatives, and 
the Moneys expended on account of the company, and including 
copies of all the important blank forms required by employes 
in making the returns required of them. 

The rules have the great merit of simplicity, of directness, 
and of comprehensiveness ; they have the especially important 
merit of perfect practicability upon a road only a few miles in 
length, or one extending uninterruptedly across the continent. 

It contains an easy and natural subdivision of the current 
expenses of a railway, based on principles readily understood. 
It defines in the clearest possible manner the difference be¬ 
tween expenditures which add nothing to the original value of 
the property and those which are classed as Improvements or 
Additions, making plain to the least expert the difference be¬ 
tween Expense and Capital account. 

The book is invaluable to railway officers and accountants 
as a book of reference. 



# 


“ Railway Service —Trains and Stations.” 

Price $3.00. 

In the preparation of this book an exhaustive examination has been 
made of “ the rules and regulations in force to-day upon some twenty of 
the greatest, most thoroughly organized, and best managed roads upon 
this continent. The workings of all the principal roads of Great Britain 
have also been studied, and such of their rules and regulations as were 
thought applicable to our system of management have been embodied. 

* * * * In many cases where their (the English) regulations were 

not directly or wholly applicable, they have nevertheless been inserted 
as foot notes for the purpose of illustrating their theory and its peculiari¬ 
ties, and for the valuable information and instruction they afford. 

* * * * The writer has * * * * introduced new rules and 

explanations wherever he believed they would tend to a clearer under¬ 
standing of the subject. And in reference to the construction of the old 
rules adopted by him, he has not hesitated to alter or amend their purport 
or phraseology wherever he believed greater efficiency or clearness could 
be secured by such alteration or amendment ; the object being so far as 
possible to frame a code of rules sufficiently comprehensive to cover great 
enterprises as well as comparatively unimportant or partially completed 
ones.”— Railway Service — Trains and Stations , fip. 65, 67, 68. 

“ Baggage Car Traffic.” 

Price $2.00. 

This volume illustrates the peculiarities of the Baggage 
Department, and describes the duties, responsibilities, and 
practices of those connected with it. It explains the nature 
and peculiarities of Baggage Car Traffic and the Rules and 
Regulations applicable thereto. 

Address Orders for the foregoing books to 

CAMERON, AMBERC & CO., 

71 and 73 Lake St., CHICAGO. 


RAILWAY BOOKS. 

For Sale by “ The Railroad Gazette," 73 Broadway, New York. 

Catechism of the Locomotive. By M. N. Forney, 625 pages, 
250 engravings; price, $2.50. 

Economic Theory of the Location of Railways. By A. M. 

Wellington ; price, $2.00. 

Roadmaster’s Assistant ani Section-Master’s Guide. By 

Wm, S. Huntington and Charles Latimer ; price, $1.50. 

PAMPHLETS. 

Investigation into the Cost of Passenger Traffic on American 

Railroads. By Albert Fink ; price, 75 cents. 

Cost of Railroad Transportation. By Albert Fink; price, 
75 cents. 

Railroad Employes in France. By F. Jacqmin ; price, 25 cts. 
The Verrugas Viaduct. By Ernest Pontzen; price, 40 cts. 

English vs. American Bridges. Price, 25 cents. 




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